The Lookout Vol. 2 Issue 1

A Journal of Undergraduate Research East Carolina University

Volume 2 Fall 2014

Inside Cover

The Lookout A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU

Volume 2, Issue 1 Fall 2014

The Lookout: A Journal of Undergraduate Research Volume 2, Issue 1 2014 Editors

Brittney Benton

Emily Gardner

Tayler Bulluck

Amber Jones

Robert Coffey

Kristen Martin

John Donahue

Mykenzie Montgomery

William Eddins

Morgan Norwood

Gregory Fenn

Ashley Weston

Logo Design

Amber Jones

Cover Photograph

Courtney Titlus

Cover Design

Amber Jones

Website

Amber Gardner, Donna Kain, Kristen Martin, Ashley Weston

Journal Design

Robert Coffey, final document compilation lead; Amber Jones, fonts and art lead; Morgan Norwood, page design lead; William Eddins, scheduling and documentation; Gregory Fenn and Mykenzie Montgomery, table of contents and credits; Emily Gardner, Acknowledgements; Brittney Benton; Tayler Bulluck; John Donahue; Kristen Martin; Ashley Weston

Copyright 2014 Š Department of English, East Carolina University ISSN (Forthcoming)

Managing Editor:

Donna J. Kain, kaind@ecu.edu

Contact The Lookout at lookout@ecu.edu

For additional information, visit our website at www.ecu.edu/lookout

Table of Contents Table of Contents.................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 The Argument for Equality: Should Same-sex Marriage be a Constitutional Right for American Citizens? ....................... 1 To Be or Not to Be a (Role) Model in a Glass (Ceiling) Menagerie ............................................................................................ 9 The American Indian Diaspora and North Carolina: Tracing Indian Surnames in the 19th Century ................................. 17 Lyrical Likeness: A History of Hatred Despite Metal and Pop Lyric Commonalities............................................................ 25 “Green Cancer”: Rhetorical Analysis of a Natural American Spirit Ad ................................................................................... 31 Eshu and the Human Condition ...................................................................................................................................................... 37 Affordable Care Act’s Effect on Physicians’ Workload and Compensation ............................................................................. 43 Desertion in the Confederate Army: A Disease that Crippled Dixie......................................................................................... 49 The Freedom to Marry ...................................................................................................................................................................... 59 Quality of Care in Public and Private Geriatrics ........................................................................................................................... 63 Food Preference Behaviors of Leaf-cutter Ants in Gamboa, Panama ......................................................................................... 70 Deciphering the Use of Native American Mascots in Sports: The American Indian Debate ............................................... 79 Influence of Spanish Colonization: How Christianization Influenced Nahuatl in Central Mexico ...................................... 83 A Decade of Aids: Shaping the Gay Community .......................................................................................................................... 95 Goblin Market: An Allegory for Addiction.................................................................................................................................. 103

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The Argument for Equality: Should Same-sex Marriage be a Constitutional Right for American Citizens?

Victoria Eaton Introduction In the last 20 years, the fight for marriage equality for homosexuals has taken a front seat in public policy making. While the decision to legalize same-sex marriage has been left to the states up until this point, there is growing concern that it should develop until a federal issue, the main question being whether or not same-sex marriage is a right under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. “An estimated 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an estimated 0.3% of adults are transgender” (Gates 2011). While this portion of the population may appear small, this is roughly 9 million people currently living in the U.S. affected by the issue.

This number is also predicted to rise due to the fact that more people are no longer afraid to self-identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Transgender (LGBT) in Generation Y. Generation Y is covers individuals born between the 1980s and 2000s. With more people predicted to identify as homosexual in future generations, and with the ongoing fight for equality among all groups, the policy issue is an important one to be addressed in 21st century politics.

Literature Review There are two sides to the same sex marriage argument, which is the reason the issue has not come to a definitive resolution. The support for same-sex marriage includes several points regarding constitutional rights. Supporters say legalizing same-sex marriage would be a recognition of basic American principles of equal rights. “It is, some have said, the last major civil rights milestone yet to be surpassed…This bedrock American principle of equality” (Olsen 2011).

The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that marriage is one of the most fundamental American rights under the 14th Amendment. Marriage is a legal, civil bond in this country in most cases, which provides couples with certain privileges. Only occasionally is a religious connotation associated with married couples.

This argument frames the idea that all men were created equal under the law and no man should be denied his rights as an American, therefore homosexuals are considered equals to heterosexuals under the law.

Those who support same-sex marriage also claim the procreation argument is invalid because heterosexual couples are not asked whether they intend to bear children or whether they have the capacity to have children. “Preventing lesbians and gays from marrying does not cause more heterosexuals to marry and conceive more children” (Olsen 2011). There is also scientific evidence that homosexuals do not choose to be homosexual – this evidence includes genetic links and brain anatomy (Gilreath 2012). “The constitution guarantees the freedom to exercise citizens’ individual religious convictions, it equally prohibits citizens from forcing their beliefs on each other” (Olsen 2011).

Supporters of same-sex marriage say that this separation of church and state annuls any kind of morality argument that those against same-sex marriage would have regarding the issue.

Those who are against same sex marriage have two primary arguments: religion and family life. They argue that predictions of measurable harm can be made to the family and to the upbringing and well-being of children raised in same-sex households (Shulman). Also, humanity will lose the ability to maintain the most basic components of our humanity. “We are tampering with unwritten and unfailing laws. Disruptive, anarchic, violence-prone behavior of many homosexuals does not allow for the formation of stable, long-term, monogamous relationships” (Shulman 2011). By definition, marriage is to sanction and solemnize that connection of opposites which alone creates new life, so there is also suggestion of compromising and calling same sex couples “civil unions” (Taylor 2012).

The religious argument state that homosexuality is explicitly stated as a sin in the Old Testament of the Bible. “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).

This verse has often been debated, and there is a divide

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among Christians as to the validity of the Old Testament. Some Christians believe that the New Testament supersedes the Old Testament, while other Christians believe the whole Bible is the word of God (Stanford 2013). Those who do not support same-sex marriage say that the religious argument is valid in a government context, because the United States was founded on Christian principles (Shulman 2011).

The Problem The overhanging problem is that there are no federal laws protecting marriage rights of homosexuals; only state sanctions and amendments (Gilreath 2012).

There are questions debating if it would harm the traditional institution of marriage, if it’s religiously righteous, whether it’s constitutional to ban same-sex marriage, as well as what it would do to the economy.

The pros and cons of legalizing same-sex marriage are currently perceived to be equal, leaving the issue unresolved. The research question presented is “Should same sex marriage be a constitutional right?” This question was tested through in-class presentation responses in the context of focus group interviews.

Methodology To collect data, two songs were presented on opposing sides of the same-sex marriage argument and then recorded responses to the selections were chosen. This first song is for the supporting argument – same sex marriage should be a constitutional right. It is called “G.I.N.A.S.F.S” – Gay is Not a Synonym for Stupid –

by Fall Out Boy. Lyrics: I've loved everything about you that hurts So let me see your moves Let me see your moves Lips pressed close to mine True Blue But the prince of any failing empire knows that Everybody wants Everybody wants to drive on through the night If it's the drive back home Things aren't the same anymore Some nights it gets so bad that I almost pick up the phone Trade Baby Blues For wide-Eyed Browns I sleep with your old shirts And walk through this house in your shoes

I know it's strange It's a strange way of saying that I know I'm supposed to love you I'm supposed to love you I've already given up on myself twice (But the) third time is the charm Third time is the charm Threw caution to the wind But I've got a lousy arm And I've traced your shadows on the wall Now I kiss them whenever I'm down Whenever I'm down (Just kind of) figured on Not figuring myself out Chorus: I was born under a bad sign But you saved my life That night on the roof of your hotel "Cross my heart and hope to die Splinter from the headboard in my eye" Photo-proofed kisses I remember so well Fall Out Boy is a pop punk band based out of Chicago composed of Pete Wentz, Patrick Stump, Andy Hurley, and Joe Trohman. These four men founded the group in 2001 and have regularly supported the marriage equality campaign. Pete Wentz has taken part in the NOH8 photo movement more than once and the other members have expressed their support of same- sex marriage in interviews and in social media.

The NOH8 photo movement is an equal rights movement that many celebrities over the last few years have participated in. Participants take photos with pieces of duct tape over their mouths and the words “NOH8” written on their cheeks in red. This song was chosen because it is written in the perspective of a man struggling with his sexuality. It is very personal and it gets its message across without explicitly stating the policy issue, such as songs like “Same Love” by Macklemore.

The second song chosen was an excerpt from “Fly Away” by Goodie Mob which is for the dissenting argument - same sex marriage should not be a constitutional right. Lyrics: Now GIT, don't let the doorknob hit ya Where the good Lord split ya I'm hearin rumors too That you so gone off that D and PCP, that thoughts Of lettin another man sample your wine

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU haunts your mind Look like the color pink Rubbin elbows with the wrong folks Makin kin breach they skin Secretaries terminated after seein the boss pack fudge Dirty men need to do more than bathe, huh How's about burned at the stake Like the rest of those Sodomites Even though you had beautiful kids and a wife He still bent both ways, ain't no due process For boys that become girls or verse versa Field niggaz control this Pin the hollow point tip On this same-sex rights activists A ghetto game we all familiar with Now how many licks, did it take, to get you wet You ends today, fly away (fly, fly away) (Fly away, now) Goodie Mob is a hip-hop group based in Atlanta, Georgia, that formed in 1991 and currently consists of members, Cee-Lo Green, Khujo, T-Mo, and Big Gipp.

The group's name acts as a double acronym, which is an acronym that is a combination of phrases and specific words. As explained on the track "Fighting" on Soul Food, Goodie Mob means "the GOOD DIE Mostly Over Bullshit." The group does not actively participate in anti-same sex lobbying, but they make their position on same sex marriage explicitly clear in their music. This song was chosen for the shock factor.

The lyrics are so explicitly against same sex marriage, it acted as a foil for “G.I.N.A.S.F.S.” After playing the songs, data was collected by conducting a focus group interview of a convenience sample of students in Dr. Mani’s Political Science 3042 class. The following three questions were asked for each song: 1. What do you think the message of the song is?

2. How does it make you feel?

3. Do you agree or disagree? Why? At the end of the presentation after the music had been heard and discussed, three open-ended wrap-up questions were asked to summarize the focus group’s overall feelings on the issue of same-sex marriage:

3 1. Do you think same-sex marriage is a government issue at all?

2. Do you think same-sex marriage should be considered a constitutional right?

3. Final thoughts or views on the issue?

A questionnaire was also provided with the following questions, to which students gave written responses at their leisure. They were given the option to answer these questions either before, during, or after the presentation. Seventeen of these questionnaires were collected: 1. How do you feel about same-sex marriage personally and as a policy issue?

2. Do you feel the government should regulate same-sex marriage or is it a private issue? Explain.

3. Define the term marriage in your opinion.

4. Do you identify as a male, female or other? (If other, please specify) 5. Do you identify as a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian or other? (If other, please specify).

(See Appendix.)

Results The responses to “G.I.N.A.S.F.S.” were thoughtful, original, and, in-line with what the song is trying to convey.

I think that it does a good job of explaining how sometimes the feelings are actually calculated. A lot of people think that people just choose to be same sex for no reason, but you can obviously see that there is some kind of debate going on with him like trying to figure out who he is and then how to express that. Like trying to pick up the phone, but of course there’s that barrier that is his acceptance. It’s not something, it’s hard for society to accept you as same- sex, but it’s also hard to accept yourself as same sex.

(Personal Communication 4/9/2014).

Well I kind of took from it… during the coming out process, I know that for me I struggled a lot, and I felt like I would go the way I was meant to go and then go back

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The Lookout because it’s ‘wrong’. I feel like he has this guy’s shirt because they had been together twice before and so now he’s trying again and walking in the shoes is symbolic of coming out and being out and walking that life.

(Personal Communication 4/9/2014).

The responses to “Fly Away” were mostly shocked. The song was received negatively by the focus group. Most responses reflected reactions to the vulgarity rather than the policy issue; however, this song did spark comments on black culture.

It kind of reflects the feelings about homosexuality in the black subculture. It’s very frowned upon because the culture in itself is very religious, but that’s really extreme, just too much. (Personal Communication 4/9/2014).

I just found it kind of interesting that in the verse before, they’re talking about other people slinging slurs, and then he goes and he slings slurs. (Personal Communication 4/9/2014).

Do you think same-sex marriage is a governmental issue at all?

I think at this point, yes, I guess when the government was founded it never should have been an issue. But because we’re at this point where we’ve made it an issue and it has to be a government issue now. (Personal Communication 4/9/2014).

Do you think same sex marriage should be considered a constitutional right?

I think marriage has taken on too much of a religious stigma and my personal belief is that marriage is a bond between two people who are in love and if those people happen to be the same gender, by all means. You can call it a marriage, a union you can call its shacking up, whatever it is. I think the government has taken marriage as being too literal. (Personal Communication 4/9/2014).

Final thoughts or views on the issue?

I think the only reason people are opposed is because of religious reasons, and we’re

supposed to have separation of church and state so why should it be considered.

(Personal Communication 4/9/2014)?

Homosexuals should have rights in general, and even though I’m straight if I ever have kids one day, I want them to be able to express themselves without fear of hiding themselves from other people. (Personal Communication 4/9/2014)

Summary, Discussion, and, Conclusions To summarize, same sex marriage faces many restrictions from policy makers across many different fields. There is support on both sides of the issue, making it difficult to move forward. Results of this focus group study show unanimous support for samesex marriage and all respondents agree it is a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.

There are several different arguments, all agreeing with this position. However, this study has some significant limitations, which may prevent further observation of this study. Strict scrutiny should be applied to this research and a larger sample should be taken in future research of this kind. This sample of 17 college age students does not accurately represent all American citizens’ thoughts on the issue. It may be reflective of college-aged students in North Carolina, so it can be applied to Generation Y’s views on same-sex marriage.

This class sample had several different political ideologies represented and all opinions were in accord with each other.

This generational support for same sex-marriage and the all-encompassing opinion that it should be legal at the federal level implies progress in the future.

Once Generation Y reaches full adulthood outside of college life, it can be predicted that major policy changes will occur. Voter turn-out within this generation will increase as members of the generation age and public opinion will move in the direction of equality. Public opinion is known to greatly influence public policy, so Generation Y’s political activism may change the face of the issue in the next 10 to 15 years.

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Appendix A: Questionnaire Results

Respondent 1

2

3 4

5

6

7

8

Do you Do you identify as identify as a a Democrat, Do you feel the male, female Republican, government should or other? (If Independent, How do you feel about regulate same sex other, Libertarian or same sex marriage as a marriage or is it a Define the term “marriage” please other? (If other policy issue? private issue? Explain. in your opinion. specify) please specify) I'd love for it to be legal. Treat it as any other Legal contract between two Female Democrat It needs to be a marriage. people. constitutional amendment.

I am for it. It Regulate it to some Happiness between two I would say No Response should not be a policy standard as other people. Happy in being able male issue because who gets marriage, but keep it to stand someone for a long (whatever married is not anybody's mostly private. time. also there are that means) business but the people monetary benefits to getting married. marriage.

It is a human right and Just do it like regular Hell Male Moderate/Libertar should be allowed marriage ian That it’s fine and Yes people are killed Legal contract binding the Male Democrat perfectly natural and that over their sexual estates of two people society would be preference and the benefitted economically federal government and with people being a should step up little kinder to each other.

Personally, I believe Same sex marriage is a A sacred bond between two Female Republican individuals should have private issue that has people who love one the freedom to marry unfortunately become another. Although I am whomever they please. I a political debate and religious and believe God find it oppressive the way I do not believe the loves us all and it is in which politicians argue government should unfortunate that the people against same-sex marriage regulate personal who believe in Him as well and I am a conservative. affairs in regard to cast judgment in His name.

Same-sex couples who their love life. are married should have the same rights and tax benefits as heterosexual married couples.

I totally agree with same It is a private issue A union between two Male Independent sex marriage, for between two people who love each other who am I to judge. Live consenting adults. and let live.

I think it should be legal. It is a private issue, A legal union between two Female Democrat why should the people. government decide what person can be married based on sex.

I feel like there is nothing It should be private. If I guess something that Female Democrat wrong with it. It’s not someone wants to unites two people when like they’re harming marry someone, they are truly in love and anyone. whether a man and a wish to be together. man, man and a woman. They should

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Respondent 9

10

11

12 13

14

15

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Do you Do you identify as identify as a a Democrat, Do you feel the male, female Republican, government should or other? (If Independent, How do you feel about regulate same sex other, Libertarian or same sex marriage as a marriage or is it a Define the term “marriage” please other? (If other policy issue? private issue? Explain. in your opinion. specify) please specify) have same rights as anyone else.

I think it should be legal No. Whatever they Union of love between two Female Nothing in all states. Love is love. want to do they people.

You should never deny should be able to do anyone their right to it. love.

I feel like same sex It is a private issue. It A bond between two people Male Independent marriage should be legal. should be private who love each other and I feel this personally and because marriage want the things that go politically. between a man and a with marriage such as tax woman is a private breaks and inheritance tax issue. exemption.

I believe same-sex I believe same-sex Two people who commit Female Libertarian marriage should be legal. marriage and to each other and no one It should be a human heterosexual marriage else until death. right to be able to marry should be private who you want. The main issues, but I reason people are against understand why the it is because of religion government gets and we are supposed to involved in order to be have separation of church sure husbands and and state. Same sex wives get benefits marriage is not hurting anyone, so why shouldn’t they be allowed to marry?

It doesn’t affect me, Could not read Legal benefits Male Anti-Republican other than tax dollars. handwriting To each their own.

I support same sex No the government Marriage is a bond that two Male Republican marriage everyone should should not regulate people share that want to have the same rights we this issue it should be be together forever. are all individuals. a private issue.

It’s the next piece of Regulate in the sense Foolish Male Socialist major civil rights of allowing it, not legislation. It’s insane allowing a state to that same sex marriage is prevent a same sex illegal. marriage Love it, same sex rights Government regulated Union between two people Female Democrat/Indepe are human rights. on a national level. who want to get married. ndent Discrimination is A.K.A. legal in the Gender, race, sexual outdated and U.S.A. should not be a orientation aside. unnecessary. Believe in all state issue.

Rights for all People.

There should be separation of church and state.

It shouldn’t be an issue. No; government Legally bound with Female Independent Everyone should be able should have no say on benefits.

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Respondent 17

How do you feel about same sex marriage as a policy issue? to get married to whoever they want to.

I believe marriage should not have religious stigma associated with it but if it makes the government feel better to call it a civil union, then so it be.

Marriage should be open to two people who are in love and I even personally wouldn’t mind trading a hetero “marriage” for a legal “union.” The name/term is not the issue.

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Do you Do you identify as identify as a a Democrat, Do you feel the male, female Republican, government should or other? (If Independent, regulate same sex other, Libertarian or marriage or is it a Define the term “marriage” please other? (If other private issue? Explain. in your opinion. specify) please specify) who can get married to whom.

If marriage is a legal Marriage has been Male Leftist/Independe bond to incorporate stigmatized as a religious nt two lives together in term but I believe it refers love, then the to the commitment and government should bond that two people make have no more control to share their life together. over marriage than they do free speech.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: My name is Victoria Eaton and I am a junior Political Science major at East Carolina University. I am from Kill Devil Hills, NC in the Outer Banks. I am the Academic Excellence Chair of the Gamma Sigma Chapter of Kappa Delta Sorority. I am an Access Scholar, Golden Leaf Scholar and National Collegiate Scholar. I am also a member of the Honors College. I am active in the ECU LGBT Resource Office and I volunteer at the Golden Living Center, an assisted living home for senior citizens. I am passionate about the topic of LGBT rights, women’s rights, and human rights in general. I hope to attend graduate school to get my Master’s in Political Science education and my PhD in Women, Gender and Sexuality studies with the ultimate goal of being a college professor and researcher.

Works Cited Gates, Gary J.. "How many people are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender?." The William Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy 1 (2011): 1-8. Print.

Gilreath, Shannon. The End of Straight Supremacy [electronic Resource] : Realizing Same sex Liberation. New York City: Cambridge UP, 2012. Web. Olson, Theodore B. "Should Same-Sex Marriage Be a Constitutional Right? (Yes)." Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Political Issues. By George McKenna and Stanley Feingold. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 254-59.

Print.

Shulman, Sam. "Should Same-Sex Marriage Be A Constitutional Right? (No)." Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Political Issues. By George McKenna and Stanley Feingold. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 260-66. Print.

Stanford, Anthony. "The Black LGBT Struggle." Homophobia in the Black Church [electronic Resource] : How Faith, Politics, and Fear Divide the Black Community (2013): n. pag. Praeger. Web. Taylor, Verta A. "Marriage Activism." The Marrying Kind? [electronic Resource] : Debating Same-sex Marriage within the Lesbian and Same sex Movement (2013): n. pag. Web.

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To Be or Not to Be a (Role) Model in a Glass (Ceiling) Menagerie Victoria Neff Virginia Woolf unabashedly exposed her culture’s inherent sexism, if not misogyny, lamenting the overwhelming obstacles women face as authors and the virtually insurmountable difficulties they face in theatre arts. If Shakespeare had had a sister, Woolf declares, she would have likely been proclaimed “a witch . . . possessed by devils” and her writing “suppressed”, for “any woman [dramaturg] born . . . in the sixteenth century would certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days” alone, “half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked.” “No girl,” according to Woolf, “could have . . . forced her way into the presence of actor-managers without doing herself a violence” (49). “[L]ooking [to] the shelf where there are no plays by women,” a female playwright would have had no encouragement, and, “her work would [likely] have gone unsigned” (50). Seeking refuge through complete anonymity or under a male pseudonym, a female dramatist would have languished—and disappeared (50).

Imagine just such a young thespian today sitting anxiously by the phone, awaiting the results of her previous night’s audition. She was disappointed but not surprised by yet another show featuring several prominent male roles for the few boys auditioning, but scant girls’ parts for which a sea of girls spilled beyond the waiting room in anticipation. Glancing at the sides set out by the stage manager, the young thespian wonders, “Why don’t the girls get to go on quests?

Why must girls always wait to be rescued?”

In too many plays, the formula is depressingly familiar: females are helpless creatures who must defer to the male authority of their fathers, lovers, or both.

The young heroine performs a brief monologue, but her audience, a group of men, focused on casting the important, male parts, hurriedly dismiss her with a brisk, “Don’t call us; we’ll call you.”

Finally, her phone rings, but she’s told, yet again that, despite her talent, the director had to make some tough choices, so though she was not cast, she should keep trying. The next day, she dispiritedly peruses the cast list: a slew of boys’ names blanketing the page, with

the smattering of strategically placed girls’ names failing to mask the disparity.

Despite this setback and many that follow, the girl still loves theatre. Watching actors bring a story to life or, especially, being a part of that magical experience remains an incomparable thrill. She only wishes for more plays about girls and women. Why are men’s stories considered more relevant or entertaining?

Continuing to audition, she lands a few bit parts, garners some supporting roles and eventually snares the occasional lead, but our heroine (now a young adult) still finds too many of these parts flat, with little depth or intrigue. Her experience, replicated time and again, even in 2014, has her considering emulating her literary mentor and slaying the “Angel in the House,” or in this case, on the stage.

Originally, females weren’t permitted onstage.

Boys whose voices had not yet changed played their parts. Roles often geared to uplift the male lead, emphasizing his centrality to the plot, the female character’s safety, and their sense of self-worth. Though early plays like those from ancient Greece depict several strong-willed women, like Medea and Lysistrata, these characters’ prominence stem from their being more like men in women’s bodies, aberrations in having independent thoughts and goals. Similarly restrictive, the Elizabethan stage prohibited female performers, and in many works, like As You Like It and Twelfth Night, the female characters must pretend to be men in order to accomplish their aims: to marry men. And though Lady Macbeth never dresses like a man, she shares this expectation that she must deny her femininity and embrace the power of masculinity, asking the gods to “unsex” (Mac. 1.5.39) her, to prevail—in assisting her husband seize the crown. Hence, she can “bring forth male children only,” (Mac. 1.7.72) for she’s too strong to be a woman.

Not until the Restoration do females finally appear on the British stage. However, shows produced across the globe still feature subservient women, and those attempting to speak out are censored. In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Nora stands up to and leaves her husband, but many initial productions have Nora

10 remain with Torvald. Only with “the door slam heard around the world,” (Garza) do murmurings of change begin. Even twentieth-century plays, however, continue silencing or underestimating women. In Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Amanda prattles on about “gentleman callers,” (Williams 1034; sc. 1) with little to no worthwhile advice for her invalid daughter.

Mr. Wingfield’s picture looms over the family, overpowering them even though the man, himself, vanished years before. Similarly, in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Linda blindly defends her husband who treats her abominably. Likewise, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive delves into the incestuous relationship between Li’l Bit, a brilliant young girl, and her predatory Uncle Peck whose treachery transcends his death, plaguing Li’l Bit’s subsequent relationships. Throughout time and across countries women have been ignored, abused, and undermined onstage, and for too many people seeing is believing. For equality to prevail within our society, it must be portrayed, countering this centuries-old, global conundrum. Only then can women be free.

As literary critics Gilbert and Gubar demonstrate in The Madwoman in the Attic, the need for escape is pervasive in many nineteenth-century stories, and this motif also infuses Hamlet and The Glass Menagerie.

Ophelia escapes through a prevalent feminine alternative: insanity. After Polonius’s death, Ophelia goes mad and is finally given a voice, albeit a tragic and disoriented one, singing songs of love and loss while doling out flowers symbolic of their recipients. Ophelia evades facing her father’s death at her beloved’s hands through madness, and she finally escapes a world with no suitor or father through suicide. While Laertes can travel and expand his horizons in France and challenge Hamlet to a duel, Ophelia can only seek solace in madness or death.

Similarly, Laura retreats into her “glass menagerie,” (Williams 1057; sc. 7) unable to face the outside world. Allowing her excessively introverted nature to prevent her from pursuing an education, she becomes physically sick and flees from the business class in which her mother enrolls her, and she spends the remainder of the term hiding from the class and her mother. Amanda escapes her current predicament via memory, recalling her heyday with “seventeen gentlemen callers” (Williams 1034; sc. 1). Dwelling on the past, she avoids the painful and dismal present, and she dreams of a bright, though likely unattainable, future for Laura: economic security through marriage.

The Lookout Tom also wants to leave his stifling existence in St. Louis. Initially, he escapes by drinking copiously, watching movies endlessly, and writing poetry constantly. Eventually, these momentary flights no longer suffice, so he abandons his family—just like his father.

Men leave, but women are left. Do they have an alternative? Where might these female characters or their audience turn? Can they find “a room of [their] own” (Woolf 113)? A liminal stage, for anthropologists, usually represents a period of transition for individuals who, as yet, hold no specific rank or status within their community. On the verge of undergoing—or in the process of completing—a rite of passage, liminal subjects cross this threshold to discover themselves and assume their rightful place in society.

Liminality refers to this transitional process, but liminality can also mean an invisible or imperceptible space. Might such a point in time and space provide the freedom females seek? In a theatre, stage and space refer to specific, usually spot-lit, performance areas, but perhaps there’s a barely perceptible (performance) space that permits females to celebrate—rather than regret— their femininity, highlighting what might otherwise be overlooked.

It’s located in considering the benefit, rather than detriment, of being a woman, especially at this point of transition, this threshold to womanhood. Instead of chasing a man’s dream or struggling to inhabit a man’s world, women should be encouraged to embrace their femininity as a strength, not bear it like Coleridge’s albatross, realizing—and celebrating—the feminine empowerment from within this liminal space. Between society’s labels and associations of overtly feminine or unquestioningly masculine acts and interests, female performers and audiences truly cross this threshold when they finally learn to appreciate females’ contributions. In so doing, they learn to confront and challenge society’s biases, asking whether a play is only worthwhile when featuring a masculine lead and contemplating whether females are alienated from an art form that, despite the overwhelming prevalence of females attending and participating in it, continues to showcase many more male leads and interests.

To assert themselves and emphasize this disparity, must women distance themselves from or oppose men?

Can this elusive space make room for both, uniting rather than dividing the sexes? Brides were once carried across the threshold; then, later generations were concerned about becoming the doormat at that

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU threshold. Many within the women’s liberation movement initially came across as too militant, driving many men—and women—away. Understandably, young women today want power and choices without aligning themselves with all the perceived baggage.

Shailene Woodley, recent teen-film star of Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars, refused to identify herself as a feminist, explaining that she likes men, assuming that feminism necessitates declaring war on and against men. However, such a belligerent dichotomy, feminists would counter, is a distortion of their aims for equality and balance.

Pursuing this difficult-to-detect, egalitarian space, perhaps we females must revise our goals—and our parameters. What if women and others feeling marginalized renovate their expectations, routes, and masculine or dominant notions of success and pursue a new definition of satisfaction, a new type of enlightenment, a nirvana of estrogen in a true “room of [our] own” (113)? Replacing, not rejecting, previous male aims and interests, we would reconsider the value and applicability of such expectations and practices, tweaking them to suit our own circumstances, determining whether their stories, ambitions, and perspectives are ours. In doing so, we could evade being trapped beneath a glass ceiling by reaching beyond such boundaries. Rather than being caught between two points, the reader is enveloped within and nourished by a chrysalis of feminine creativity and productivity. Is there something unnoticed and unappreciated by the unaware or uninitiated? In seeking this liminal threshold, can we reach our own promised motherland?

Problems plaguing people from their past include not only uplifting and validating men’s goals and accomplishments but also downplaying or even debasing women’s ambitions and achievements.

Younger generations follow suit, gravitating towards and reinforcing male-oriented aims. Boys still denigrate by taunting their male peers who demonstrate feminine and inferior traits, chastising, for example, those who throw like a girl. Even females are ambivalent about their femininity and womanhood, preferring the appellation, girl, well into adulthood. Some even use guy as a unisex term to avoid the designation, woman.

Both sexes seem to have an aversion to identifying with their feminine side, considering it embarrassing if not irrelevant.

This seems especially strange in light of sociologist Michael Kimmel’s account of the growing trend among young males to forego assuming

11 manhood, stopping off for an indefinite stay in “Guyland.” Young males are content to chill with their buds, play video games, live in their parents’ basements, score a series of one-night stands, and remain in a state of perennial adolescence, while women are making significant strides in business, academia, and in other formerly male-dominated arenas. Curiously, though female students outnumber their male counterparts on college campuses across much of the globe and are breaking through many previous male bastions, they still refer to themselves as girls and not women, suggesting they view themselves children, not adults.

More likely to accrue college degrees, women are puzzlingly more likely to accept lesser pay and seek fewer advancement opportunities. How do we counter this self-denigrating trend and validate women’s embracement of their womanhood to reap the full rewards of their hard-fought success rather than shy away from it?

Must women, like Virginia Woolf, “kill the ‘Angel in the House’” to find their own voice and strength as artists, professionals, and individuals? Or should their goal be to slay a few prevalent misconceptions to find and claim a wider array of options? By reaching beyond the stock, characters and expectations that reinforce skewed visions of females; by calling attention to characters who are either oppressed, submissive “Angels” or rebellious femme fatales, obeying or reacting to male definitions and expectations; and by then calling for female characters committed to and successful at pursuing personal goals and freedoms, women can put an end not to their femininity but to their oppression.

Fortunately, feminism and society have made advances since Woolf’s Angel-slaying vengeance, so though the Victorian ideal and femme fatale roles are restrictive, some of these characters’ traits might be worthy of retaining when pursuing worthwhile theatrical endeavors for female performers and audiences. This fabled “room of one’s own” (113) might be in a space that doesn’t reject the past but one that enables us to find—and build upon—the strengths embedded within it, locating with Carol Giligan, A Different Voice, celebrating with Belenky and colleagues Women’s Ways of Knowing.

There are two popular pieces often read and performed in American high schools and colleges: Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. In both widely studied works, the male characters had more lines and alternatives, effectively

12 silencing the weaker sex. Hamlet studies at Wittenburg and can choose from an array of volumes at Elsinore whereas Ophelia can only peruse what’s handed to her.

Hamlet can devise a Mouse-trap for Claudius while Ophelia must commit to memory the teachings of her father and brother. Laertes may live and learn abroad while his sister must remain confined at court as her father directs.

Likewise, Tom may read D. H. Lawrence or escape to the movies and then to the Merchant Marines. He can write his own poems while Laura only imagines stories for her delicate “glass menagerie,” (Williams 1057; sc. 7) never considering her own creativity worth writing down to share—or sell. Jim goes to night school to advance himself at the warehouse or even in television, but Laura’s too shy to attend Rubicam’s Business College, so her reading options are the mind-numbing secretarial class charts or The Home-maker’s Companion whose audience and topics seem strangely close to today’s Cosmopolitan, focusing on ways to attract and please a man. Though intrigued by excursions to the zoo or museum, Laura isn’t encouraged to pursue these as possible vocations, instructed instead that young women have but three choices: low-level business careers, perennial family dependence, or marriage. Despite her daughter’s interest in music and imaginative storylines for her figurines, Amanda dismisses these interests as "fool[ing] with those pieces of glass and playing those worn-out records" (Williams 1042; sc. 4).

Closed off and penned in from fully developing, Laura resembles one of her delicate glass creatures in an enclosure. Ophelia, frequently silenced, directed, and ruled by her family’s precepts and spurned by the one whose “words of so sweet breath” (3.1.99) had captured her heart and hopes, loses her wits and her life in trying to cope. Are separation or insanity female characters’ and, by implication, female audiences’ only alternatives?

Ophelia, though mostly demure, still shows strength, bravery, and conviction. As Shakespearean scholar Margreta de Grazia points out, in adorning the boughs of the willow tree, Ophelia seeks redress for Polonius’s unceremonious, “hugger-mugger” (Ham. 4.5.85) burial “without heraldic rites” (de Grazia 119).

As de Grazia explains, “Genealogical trees are commonly festooned with armorial shields as well as flowers,” and “the heraldic coats of arms hanging on those trees are [often] themselves emblazoned with . . . flowers, fruits, and leaves” (119). Ophelia’s

The Lookout arrangement, however, is that of wildflowers rather than their more esteemed, cultivated cousins; thus, she simultaneously venerates her father and ironically decries the “chivalric ostentation” denied him (de Grazia 119): “no trophy, sword, nor hatchment” (Ham. 4.5.215).

Seen in this light, Ophelia’s courageous assertiveness connects with feminine forebears and descendants. Her actions resemble Antigone’s who eschews the new king’s verdict, believing her duty to her deceased brother supersedes her obedience to Creon’s law. Sentenced to death for her actions, Antigone chooses to kill herself, strengthening her parallel to Ophelia. In Ophelia’s resolve, one could also see determination similar to that of Tess of the D’Urbervilles who baptizes and buries her own child in the churchyard despite the clergy’s ruling. Both young women decide to honor their loved one, despite the (male) authorities’ pronouncements. Thus, Ophelia’s role—and those connected to it—can be reclaimed, no longer relegated to being merely submissive, subserviently bowing to men. Instead, such roles have the potential to reveal—and encourage—subversive champions. Recounted by Gertrude, Ophelia’s defiant, admirable challenge occurs offstage. Like Hamlet’s offstage heroism which demonstrates he’s not just a brooding, philosophizing student but also a vibrant man of action, Ophelia’s bravery shows she’s not just the docile recipient of her father’s instructions and brother’s dictums, but a woman who dearly reveres— and greatly mourns—her father.

Likewise, in The Glass Menagerie, though Laura’s repressed by her own self-conscious inhibitions and oppressed by her mother’s well-intentioned, yet overbearing helicopter-style parenting, her character is still worthy of admiration: for one brief evening, she manages to shed her insecurities and dance and kiss and be like any young woman receiving a “gentleman caller” (Williams 1034; sc. 1). For someone so physically and emotionally crippled, this is a tremendous act of bravery, and it’s followed by another. Even despite learning that Jim’s already engaged, she and her mother comfort one another, and the last image of Laura before she blows out the candle is that of her smiling, replacing her father’s vapid visage with the potential of a vibrant optimism that continues to captivate her brother’s—and the audience’s—thoughts.

In theatre classes, students can probe these themes and enact their own scenes, making Ophelia’s acts explicit and exploring her resilient, rebellious,

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU determined nobility. Students can imagine what happens to Laura and Amanda after Tom leaves.

Although Williams’s play focuses on Tom’s story of memory, loss, and regret, Laura and Amanda play a prominent role in motivating Tom’s thoughts and actions, and they prompt audiences to ponder possible futures for these indefatigable characters—and themselves.

Studying these venerable works alone, students are likely to miss these characters’ subtle strengths.

However, in encountering the great potential of subsequent powerful female roles, like those in Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Glaspell’s Trifles, students become accustomed to expecting and therefore more adept at finding female characters’ strengths. In studying, portraying, and watching overtly powerful

13 female roles, female and male students become liberated from anticipating another perfectly submissive Victorian ideal. Studied together, traditional and enlightened works empower young audiences to recognize and celebrate female characters’ strengths, potent in their credibility and humanity, flaws and all.

Embracing—rather than denying—their femininity, these intriguing female characters, by virtue of their compelling realism, are truly dominant roles that can’t be easily compartmentalized, forgotten, and dismissed; instead, they’ll be probed and pondered like the multilayered Prince of Denmark’s character, for these female leads—and the audiences they inspire—are strong not despite their femininity but because of it.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: A North Carolina Theatre Conference and ECU’s School of Theatre and Dance scholarship recipient, Victoria Neff is also an Honors College student and a Teaching Fellow. Double majoring in theatre for youth performance and theatre education and dedicated to working with young thespians, she is concerned about the dearth of strong female role(model)s in the vast majority of works used to entertain and train young audiences and performers, so under the direction of Professor Hector Garza, Ms. Neff has focused her Senior Honors Thesis on endeavoring to develop and expand male and female theatre students’ expectations and options.

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Chang, Kenneth. “Bias Persists for Women of Science, a Study Finds.” The New York Times “Science.” 24 Sept.

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Crawford, Mary, and Roger Chaffin. “The Reader’s Construction of Meaning: Cognitive Research on Gender and Comprehension.” Flynn 3-30.

Davis, Derek R. Scenes of Madness: A Psychiatrist at the Theatre. London: Tavistock/Routledge, 1992. Print.

Dockterman, Eliana. "Shailene Woodley on Why She’s Not a Feminist." TIME. TIME.com, May-June 2014. Web. July-Aug. 2014.

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Ferguson, Margaret W. “A Room Not Their Own.” The Comparative Perspective on Literature: Approaches to Theory and Practice. Eds. Clayton Koelb and Susan Noakes. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1988. 93-116. Print.

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Ferrell, James. A Study of the Principal Women Characters in the Published Plays of Tennessee Williams . MA thesis. East Carolina College, 1964. Greenville, NC: East Carolina College Library, Print.

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Garza, Hector. Theatre History-Literature Class Lecture. Messick Theatre Arts Complex, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC. 18 Feb. 2013. Lecture.

Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice. Cambridge, Harvard UP, 1982. Print.

---. “Looking Back to Look Forward: Revisiting In a Different Voice.” “Defense Mechanisms.” Classics@ 1.9.5 (2014), Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies. Web. 15 May 2014. <http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook: CHS_Classicsat>.

Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles.” The Bedford Introduction to Drama. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 899-905. Print.

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Grosz, Elizabeth. “The Practice of Feminist Theory.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. 21.1 (2010): 94-108 Web. 15 May 2014.

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“Professions for Women.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. 4th ed. Vol. 2. New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc. 2045-2049. Print.

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Rhodes, Kimberly. Ophelia and Victorian Visual Culture: Representing Body Politics in the Nineteenth Century.

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The American Indian Diaspora and North Carolina: Tracing Indian Surnames in the 19th Century Kayla Carr After the European colonists proved victorious in the Tuscarora War in the eighteenth century, North Carolina America Indians dispersed with some moving out of the state, while others moved to the outskirts of a growing white society, accepting that “they would 1 never be seen or respected as equals by the English.” In the conclusion of his book, The Tuscarora War:

Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for the Carolina Colonies, David La Vere determines that “Despite

warfare, destruction, enslavement, horrific disease, and mass exoduses, Indians did not disappear from North Carolina.” This is known to be true as the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have seen Indian groups reemerge, including such enclaves as the Lumbees, 2 Waccamaws, Siouans, and Sapoines.

The question of where eastern North Carolina Indians went after the war still remains intriguing; however, as little data currently exists regarding the location of North Carolina Indians between the mideighteenth century and the early nineteenth century.

David La Vere says that “by the 1730s and 1740s, the Catawbas of the Piedmont had become tributary Indians and by the 1750s the Cherokees in the mountains would begin having their own troubles with encroaching settlers,”3 but where did the other groups of Indians go during this time? This has proven to be a daunting task for historians as census records between 1820 and 1860, if available, have not been made accessible through online databases, such as HeritageQuest. Yet, data from censuses of the later nineteenth century have been useful in tracing the paths of Native Americans in eastern North Carolina as many were labeled as mulattoes in the census records. By examining the location, surnames, and occupations of listed mulattoes, historians can create a map of which

individuals were most likely to have been Indian rather than true mulattoes (mix between white and black) and where they resided during the years after the Tuscarora War. Though the original research for this paper aimed to address the question on where eastern North Carolina Native Americans went at the close of the Tuscarora War, the research area was expanded to address the adoption of various surnames of mulattoes in the state. Census records for 1860, 1870, and 1880 were consulted. From the censuses, lists of common Indian surnames were collected from various sources and from that list a county breakdown of mulattoes was generated. The data collected and presented here aims to address specific patterns that emerged when focus was placed on the surnames and to explain scenarios in which surnames were adopted by mulattoes or, more likely, Indians. An overview of the entire state in this regard will be provided, but a special focus will highlight two North Carolina counties, Halifax County and Robeson County.

Research Methods In order to better understand the racial breakdown of North Carolina, census data from 1860, 1870, and 1880 was accessed using the online database HeritageQuest Online. Racial data was collected for specific surnames, including how many whites, blacks, and mulattoes were listed with each given surname.

Special interest was placed on mulattoes for this project as Indians were labeled mulattoes in early census records.

The surnames to research were chosen through several methods. First, several popular Indian surnames were found online, including Lumbee surnames: Brooks, Brayboy, Carter, Chavis, Cumbo, Hammonds, Kersey, Locklear, Lowry, Oxendine, and Revels.4 Other

1

David La Vere, The Tuscarora War: Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for the Carolina Colonies (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2013) p. 209 2 La Vere, p. 210 3 La Vere, p. 206

4

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, “Lumbee Timeline,” 2014. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014.

The Lookout surnames that were selected to research came from two books including Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina by Theda Purdue and Christopher Arris Oakley and Keeping the Circle by Christopher Arris Oakley. The surnames Cooper, Lambert, Lynch and Taylor were selected from the former. The surnames Bell, Berry, Bullard, Cohary, Delonia, Dial, Enoch, Freeman, Graham, Jacobs, Jeffries, Mills, and Richardson were selected from the latter. As “many of the surnames of the colonists appeared in Indian communities including Lowry, Cole, Locklear, Moore, and Dare,”5 these were also included in the surname list. Other surnames, including Maynor (alternate spelling: Mayner), Mackey, and alternate spellings of Lowry (Lowery and Lowrie) and Locklear (Locklier and Lockyear) were suggested by Dr. Larry. Tise. Dr. Tise also suggested other surnames that later surfaced within readings of the two fore-mentioned books and online research. The surname Hairston, a common African American surname was also researched for comparison.

With the information collected, a spreadsheet that shows the racial breakdown of North Carolina, including white, black, and mulatto, for specific surnames, and a county breakdown list of mulattoes was created.6 From this, maps were constructed to illustrate the dispersal pattern of the given surnames across North Carolina counties in 1860, 1870, and 1880.

Kayla Carr 18 Halifax Counties having the largest numbers. Moving to Figure 2, it can be seen that the overall population of mulattoes in the state has increased—there are more counties present with mulatto residents, and there are higher numbers in the counties that were also present in Figure 1. The overall increase of the number of mulattoes can perhaps be explained by an overall population growth and/or a higher number of free citizens since the Civil War and the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation. As in the case in Figure 1, Figure 2 illustrates the highest numbers of mulattoes with the given surnames located in Robeson and Halifax Counties. Figure 3 shows another increase in population from Figure 2, as Figure 2 did for Figure 1.

In this map, there are only five counties present with no mulattoes recorded in the census data. Mulatto population has increased in size both in the eastern and western areas of the state. Richmond County, Columbus County, and Warren County have relatively higher concentrations of mulattoes with the given surnames, but yet again, Robeson and Halifax Counties have the highest concentration. In all three figures, Figure 3 being the most obvious, Robeson County has by far the highest number of mulattoes with the given surnames.

Figure 1: Map of Mulattoes with Given Surnames – 1860

Data Collection and Analysis Once the county breakdown list of mulattoes was created, the following maps were drawn for each year to represent the dispersal patterns of mulattoes with the given surnames for 1860, 1870, and 1880 across North Carolina. Figure 1 represents 1860, Figure 2 represents 1870, and Figure 3 represents 1880.

Through examining Figure 1, it can be seen that mulattoes with the given surnames were spread out across North Carolina, but the biggest concentration lies in the eastern side of the state with Robeson and

Retrieved from http://www.lumbeetribe.com/index.php?option=com _content&view=article&id=123&Itemid=34.

5 Christopher Arris Oakley, Keeping the Circle (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005) p. 36.

6 See Appendix I and II.

Figure 2: Map of Mulattoes with Given Surnames – 1870

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Figure 3: Map of Mulattoes with Given Surnames – 1880

Similar to the population concentration patterns with high numbers in certain counties, such as Robeson and Halifax, patterns also emerge when looking at the specific surnames for each census year. In 1860, there are 0 Chavis, 0 Cumbos, 0 Enochs, 0 Mackeys, and 0 Maynor, but by 1880, there are 313, 28, 27, 52, and 53 respectively. Also in 1860, there are relatively few Locklears (10 spelled Locklear, 35 spelled Locklier, and 0 spelled Lockyear), but by 1880, there are 442 Locklears (352 spelled Locklear, 89 spelled Locklier, and 1 spelled Lockyear). The surname Lowry experiences a similar growth. In 1860, there are 21 Lowrys (4 spelled Lowry, 16 spelled Lowrie, and 1 spelled Lowery), but by 1880 there are 165 Lowrys (23 spelled Lowery, 23 spelled Lowrie, and 119 spelled Lowry). The fact that well-known Indian surnames today were not being used in 1860 (at least by the Indians the census takers were able to locate), and the fact that well-known Indian surnames today had very low numbers in 1860, but the numbers soared in just three decades, are two intriguing patterns, indeed.

Not surprisingly, as the figures above show a high concentration of the given surnames in Robeson and Halifax Counties, there are high numbers of popular Indian surnames in Robeson and Halifax Counties throughout the census years being studied. The following sections will examine both Halifax County and Robeson County more fully in terms of this research and overall county history.

Halifax County Halifax County of North Carolina lies to the north of the state, approximately 8 miles from the Virginia

border.7 Its neighboring North Carolina counties include Northampton, Warren, Nash, Edgecombe, Martin, and Bertie. Established in 1758, Halifax County covers about 722 square miles and has a 8 population of 57,000. As of 2012, Halifax County’s population was 40.9% white, 53.2% black or African American, 3.9% American Indian and Alaskan Native, and 1.2% two or more races.9 As the county has a high percentage of black or African Americans, it is not surprising that the largest percentage of businesses/firms is owned and operated 10 by blacks or African Americans.

Looking back at the history of Halifax County, one can see an increase in the number of recorded mulattoes for given surnames over the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses. The total number of mulattoes with the given surnames for 1860 is 88; 1870 is 94; and 1880 is 487. For 1860, there are 5 mulattoes with the surname Carter, 1 mulatto with the surname Freeman, 12 mulattoes with the surname Lynch, 42 mulattoes with the surname Mills, 1 mulatto with the surname Moore, and 26 mulattoes with the surname Richardson. For 1870, the numbers for the surname Carter remain the same, while there are two mulattoes with the surname Freeman and 15 mulattoes with the surname Lynch.

The number of mulattoes with the surname Mills decreases to 28; the number of mulattoes with the surname Richardson increases to 38. In addition, the surnames Cole, Kersey, and Taylor appear in 1870. For 1880 many numbers jump to 22 mulattoes with the surname Carter, 157 mulattoes with the surname Lynch, 99 mulattoes with the surname Mills, and 139

7

“Our County,” Halifax County Government, n.d. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014. Retrieved from http://www.halifaxnc.com/index.php?option=com_cont ent&view=article&id=79&Itemid=16.

8 “Our County,” Halifax County Government, n.d. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014. Retrieved from http://www.halifaxnc.com/index.php?option=com_cont ent&view=article&id=79&Itemid=16.

9 “Halifax County, North Carolina, State and Country Quickfacts, 6 January 2014. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37083.html .

10 “Halifax County, North Carolina, State and Country Quickfacts, 6 January 2014. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37083.html .

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Kayla Carr 20

mulattoes with the surname Richardson. The surnames Bell, Brooks, and Bullard also appear in 1880 in Halifax County.11 The growing number of Indian surnames over the census years being studied illustrates that while overall population grows, the number of mulattoes also grows, but the percentage of mulattoes in the total population for Halifax County declines. One striking finding is that in 1860, mulattoes make up 25.07% of Halifax County’s population, but the percentage drops to 14.45% by 1870. In 1880, the percentage remains nearly the same as the percentage of 1870 at 14.78%.

A small portion of the 14.78% of the population listed as mulattoes in 1880 were probably Indian as currently 3.9% of Halifax County’s population is Indian (as of 2012). The data suggests that Indians have resided in Halifax County for many generations, but it is difficult to determine exactly what percentage of the 14.78% of mulattoes in 1880 were true Indians based on this data.

It is possible that most were Indian, but the percentage has dropped over time because close-knit Indian communities were not present in Halifax County—as we will see, this is not the case for Robeson County.

Robeson County Robeson County of North Carolina lies on the state’s southern border, adjacent to South Carolina. Its neighboring North Carolina counties include Richmond, Cumberland, Bladen, and Columbus.

Created in 1787 from Bladen County, Robeson County is the largest county within North Carolina, covering a total of 949 square miles.12 Being so large, it is not surprising that the county had a population of 13 134,168 as of 2010. As of 2012, Robeson County’s population was 32.8% white, 24.7%black or African American, 39.0% American Indian and Alaskan Native, and 2.5% two or more races.14 As the county has a

high percentage of American Indians/Alaskan Natives, it is not surprising that the largest percentage of businesses/firms are owned and operated by American Indians/Alaskan Natives with 26.2%.15 By examining the census records of 1860, 1870, and 1880, respectively, one can gather that the mulatto (or more likely Indian) population of Robeson County has continued to grow with each passing census year.

The total number of mulattoes with the given surnames for 1860 is 132; 1870 is 224; and 1880 is 1470. For 1860 there is 1 mulatto with the surname Bell, 1 mulatto with the surname Brayboy, 4 mulattoes with the surname Brooks, 8 mulattoes with the surname Carter, 2 mulattoes with the surname Dial, 20 mulattoes with the surname Hunt, 12 mulattoes with the surname Jacobs, 39 mulattoes with the surname Locklear (7 spelled Locklear and 32 spelled Locklier), 20 mulattoes with the surname Lowry (16 spelled Lowrie and 4 spelled Lowry), 15 mulattoes with the surname Oxendine, 7 mulattoes with the surname Revels, and 3 mulattoes with the surname Taylor. For 1870, the numbers increase to 2 for Bell, 5 for Brayboy, 11 for Carter, 5 for Dial, 21 for Hunt, 72 for Locklear, 25 for Lowry (6 spelled Lowery, 2 spelled Lowrie, and 17 spelled Lowry), 21 for Oxendine, and 18 for Revels. Also for 1870, some numbers decrease such as with the surnames Brooks, Jacobs, and Taylor. The surnames Brewington, Bullard, Graham, Hammonds, and Mayner appear in Robeson County in 1870. For 1880, the numbers increase greatly. The largest surnames include Locklear with 415 (351 spelled Locklear, 63 spelled Locklier, and 1 spelled Lockyear), Hunt with 237, Chavis with 147, Lowry with 110, and Jacobs with 109.

It is worth noting that the presence of the given surnames in Robeson County almost triples in size in just ten years. The growing population of mulattoes correlates with overall population growth in the county.

In 1860, 12.99% of Robeson County’s total population was labeled as mulatto, and by 1880, the percentage of mulattoes increased to 14.23%.

11

For more information on the county breakdown, see Appendix II. 12 “Robeson County North Carolina History,” Robeson County North Carolina, n.d. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014. Retrieved from http://co.robeson.nc.us/.

13 “Robeson County North Carolina History,” Robeson County North Carolina, n.d. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014. Retrieved from http://co.robeson.nc.us/.

14 “Robeson County, North Carolina,” State and Country Quickfacts, 6 January 2014. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014. Retrieved from

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37155.html .

15 “Robeson County, North Carolina,” State and Country Quickfacts, 6 January 2014. Web. Accessed 23 March 2014. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37155.html .

3 Kayla Carr However, one interesting figure is that the percentage of mulattoes in Robeson County in 1870 dropped to 8.33%. Despite the records showing a near 5% percent decrease in mulatto population, it is known that Indians were present in Robeson County during the decades being studied, and close-knit Indian communities allowed the Indian population to grow over the generations as Robeson County now has 39.0% of its population identified as Indian.

Adoption of Surnames The increased number of surnames present across the census years being studied in addition to the rise of given surnames over time is intriguing and brings up the topic of the adoption of surnames. Some surnames such as Lowry, Cole, and Locklear, which are seen in both Robeson and Halifax Counties, have been identified as English surnames that were adopted into Indian communities.16 True, some white surnames were adopted by Indians in an attempt to be taken seriously by whites or may have been adopted by Native American females through interracial marriage with white males, but the surname Locklear is arguably not originally a white surname, or at least not present amongst whites in North Carolina in 1860. There were 173 white Coles and 47 white Lowrys (a combination of three alternate spellings), but there was only 1 white Locklear (spelled Lockyear) in 1860 compared to 45 mulatto Locklears. This raises the question as to where Indians adopted the surname Locklear if not from North Carolina whites— perhaps the surname was more prominent amongst whites in other states, such as Virginia, but that is outside the scope of this paper. It is possible that Indians adopted popular white surnames to better their reputation among the white population, but the surnames Hunt and Richardson speak more to this theory than does the surname Locklear. Another explanation for the adoption of “white” surnames is that perhaps whites designated their own names to different Indians under enslavement or tributary status. In addition to surnames being adopted by members of Indian communities, a small percentage of the increase can be attributed to natural population growth through marriage and childbirth.

This, however, speaks more to the stabilizing numbers/percentages of Indians in North Carolina

16

Oakley, p. 36.

The Lookout once the surnames had been adopted rather than the initial adoption of the surnames. Overall, the increase in the number of Indian surnames present in North Carolina over the three decades examined can be explained by an increase in the number of the free population in the 1870 census and beyond because of the Emancipation Proclamation wherein former slaves adopted former owners’ surnames. Some surnames, such as Oxendine and Brayboy, probably have Indian roots as small numbers existed in 1860, 1870, and 1880 with mulattoes baring those names, but there were no blacks nor whites counted with either name in North Carolina in any of the three censuses examined.

Individuals in Robeson County17 To serve as another test, well-known Lumbees who resided in Robeson County were searched for in each census, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Individual searchers were conducted for Preston Locklear, James E. Dial, Isaac Brayboy, James “Big Jim” Oxendine, Olin Oxendine, and JJ (John J. Oxendine), who were the “founding fathers” of UNC-Pembroke, along with Waccamaw Siouan William Luther Moore and Hamilton McMillan. No Preston Locklear is listed as residing in North Carolina in 1860, but Preston Locklear is listed as a resident of Robeson County in 1870. Interestingly enough, Locklear was labeled as black and not mulatto. In 1880, Locklear was again unlisted, though he did not die until 1916. Like in Locklear’s case, James E. Dial was not listed in North Carolina in 1860, but is listed as a resident of Robeson County in 1870. Unlike Locklear, Dial is labeled as mulatto. In 1880, Dial is again listed as a resident of Robeson County and a mulatto. Isaac Brayboy is listed as a resident of Robeson County for 1860, 1870, and 1880. For each record he is listed as mulatto. When searching for James Oxendine, there are no results for 1860 and 1870, but there are 9 James Oxendines listed in Robeson County in 1880, all 9 being labeled as mulatto. James E. Oxendine, the man being searched for, would be 39 at the time of the 1880 census, but no

17

Information about the men and their background and birth and death dates was learned from Lawrence T. Locklear, “UNCP’s Founding Fathers,” University of North Carolina at Pembroke. N.d. Web. Accessed 20 March 2014. Retrieved from http://www2.uncp.edu/uncp/about/founding_fathers.h tm.

The Lookout James Oxendine, age 39, is listed. There is a James Oxendine, age 29, listed, but his occupation is recorded as a farmhand, rather than a farmer. It is known that James E. Oxendine, one of the founding fathers at UNC-Pembroke, was a merchant and a farmer, not a farmhand. James Oxendine, age 58, is listed as a famer.

The other seven James Oxendines listed in 1880 are age 17 and younger. If James Oxendine is the man listed as age 58, it raises the question as to how the age was off by nearly twenty years. If he is not listed at all, the question is why was he was not recorded in the census even though it is known that he was a real man serving a functioning role in Robeson County. Olin Oxendine also had no results for 1860, 1870, or 1880.

John J. Oxendine is listed in 1860 as a mulatto farmer, but his age is given to be 35 rather than 34. In 1870, no John J is listed, but there are two Johns, ages 86 and 57, and one John T, age 43. None of the Johns in 1870 lived in Lumberton, as John J was listed as living in, in 1860. It is possible that John T is John J, but it is also possible that John J is just not listed in the 1870 census. In 1880 there are 19 John Oxendines in Robeson County. One John J, age 54 (which is the correct age for the John J in question) is listed as a mulatto in Burnt Swamp. The 43 year-old John T in 1870 resided in Burnt Sawmp, so it is probable that John T is, in fact, John J. The most interesting thing about looking at these names in the census records is that several of them are not listed even though we know they lived in North Carolina during the census years in question. For Locklear, Dial, James Oxendine, and Olin Oxendine, they were not listed in the records in 1860, but appeared in the 1870 or 1880 census (minus Olin).

Were these men enslaved in 1860? Even though Locklear was labeled black, instead of mulatto as he was a Lumbee, the chances of these men being enslaved are doubtful as it would appear in their history since information about these men is known. Why then, are these men absent from the census records? Perhaps these men were overlooked by the census takers or, more likely, refused to give their information to the census taker. Since there is an issue with correct ages (especially seen in the case of James Oxendine), it may be that the census takers guessed quite poorly, the ages of the free men who refused to give their information.

The idea of refusing to be involved in the census is a theory among many Robeson County Lumbees today.

In fact, it was not uncommon for Indians, such as members of the Tuscarora Nation, to refuse to take part in the US census in the twenty-first century. The

Kayla Carr 22 idea that Native Americans refused to take part in the census is intriguingand shows that the census records for 1860, 1870, and 1880 may not be accurate in terms of population. It is known that Indians were in North Carolina before the Tuscarora War and remained in North Carolina after the war. Perhaps these individuals were more present than realized, but documentation and records speak to low numbers because of the census takers' carelessness and/or the Indians refusing to participate.

Conclusions Overall, much can be gathered from the research presented here. Two main points highlighted in the study are that popular Indian surnames today were not being used in 1860 and were not being used in North Carolina counties with a current high Indian population in 1860 or the later census years, and that other well-known surnames had low numbers in 1860.

These two concepts can be explained in that over time, Native Americans adopted well-known white surnames to better assimilate into society and/or to be seen as equal to whites. Native Americans adopted different surnames through marriage that carried throughout the following generations, or surnames were given to Indian slaves who carried on the name once they gained freedom. However, not every popular Indian surname originated from whites. The surname Locklear has been presented in other texts as a white surname, but the evidence here suggests the surname was more prevalent amongst the Indians than the whites, especially in 1860. Brayboy and Oxendine also have roots outside of European colonists. The origin of popular surnames is only one interesting concept raised by the research conducted. Another intriguing question is why Indians were not included in the census as seen by the sample of Lumbee Indians of Robeson County.

The research presented here is only a beginning look into an intriguing topic of the adoption of surnames amongst Native Americans in North Carolina in the decades after the Tuscarora War, within the larger sphere of the Indian diaspora. Though conclusions can be drawn from this research, more questions have been raised in which further research is needed to answer. These questions include, but are not limited to, “Is there a correlation between slavery and surnames amongst mulattoes in the late nineteenth century,” “Where within the counties of Halifax and Robeson did the mulattoes with these surnames actually reside,” “Where did popular Indian surnames

3 Kayla Carr

The Lookout

such as Locklear really originate from,” and “Why were some Indians not included in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses?”

Suggestions for Future Research When this research began, one goal was to use the North Carolina slave schedules of 1860 to see if there was any correlation with increasing number of surnames in 1880. However, these schedules only contain total number of male and female slaves and not total number of mulatto and black slaves, though slaves are labeled as either black or mulatto for each county record. If time had allowed in the semester, totals could have been calculated and incorporated into the research and data used for this paper. This task could be conducted in the future to help identify the origin, emergence, and adoption of surnames by Indians in North Carolina.

In addition to adding more research on the adoption of surnames, more research can be conducted on the dispersal of the given surnames within the

counties of focus, Halifax and Robeson. One initial goal of the research was to create maps of each specified county for each census year and see how people of the same surnames were grouped in each county—were they all concentrated in one town, were they spread apart, were they in the north or south, etc.

Unfortunately, towns that existed in 1860 do not exist today, or at least not of the same name, so creating a map with the towns that people resided in proved quite challenging within the time frame for this project.

Future research can use the North Carolina and the Special Collections in Joyner Library among other sources to try to trace the evolution of towns within Halifax and Robeson Counties to see the exact locations of mulattoes with given surnames with each given census year. The first constructed map of Halifax County with the given census information regarding the town’s location is provided in the project folder. A note has been made of the towns yet to be listed on the map—this can serve as a starting point for future research on this matter.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: My name is Kayla Carr, and I am a senior double majoring in Middle Grades Education and History. I am a North Carolina Teaching Fellow, the 2014 Historian for the Lambda-Eta Chapter of the national history honor society, Phi Alpha Theta, and a writing consultant at the East Carolina University Writing Center. In my spare time I enjoy reading, writing, and traveling.

The Lookout

Kayla Carr 24

Works Cited “Halifax County, North Carolina,” State and Country Quickfacts, 2014. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37083.html (accessed March 23, 2014).

La Vere, David. The Tuscarora War: Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for the Carolina Colonies. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2013.

Locklear, Lawrence T. “UNCP’s Founding Fathers.” University of North Carolina at Pembroke, 2012. http://www2.uncp.edu/uncp/about/founding_fathers.htm (accessed March 20, 2014).

Oakley, Christopher Arris. Keeping the Circle. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

“Our County.” Halifax County Government. http://www.halifaxnc.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&Itemid=16 (accessed March 23, 2014).

“Robeson County, North Carolina.” State and Country Quickfacts, 2014. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37155.html (accessed March 23, 2014).

“The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.” Lumbee Timeline, 2014. http://www.lumbeetribe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=123&Itemid=34 (accessed March 23, 2014).

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU

25

Lyrical Likeness: A History of Hatred Despite Metal and Pop Lyric Commonalities Erika Dietrick Heavy metal has long had critics of both its musical and lyrical style. Over the course of heavy metal’s history, it has been described “as having ‘a complete lack of subtlety, intelligence, and originality’” by the Los Angeles Times, and a musician journalist commented that the public views metal as “a musical moron joke, fodder for frustrated teens and dominion of dim-witted devil-worshippers” (Weinstein 2). The differences between heavy metal and other music genres are obvious, but the similarities abound as well. This paper will compare and contrast the lyrics of two seemingly diametrically opposed genres—heavy metal and pop—by analyzing the most popular songs by System of a Down and Lorde, each of which represent the genres, respectively.

System of a Down is a neo-gothic alternative metal band founded in 1994 in Southern California (“System of a Down”). The band is comprised of drummer John Dolmayan, guitarist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian, and vocalist Serj Tankian.

Together, the four have released the albums System of a Down, Toxicity, Steal this Album!, Mezmerize, and Hypnotize which incorporate the group’s “wild vocal melodies, lyrical passion, and rabid structural shifts” (“System of a Down”). The band has received numerous awards and nominations over the years, including winning an mtvU Woodie Award in the Good Woodie (Greatest Social Impact) category, given at an awards show whose results are voted upon by college students, and a Grammy Award in the Best Hard Rock Performance Category in 2006 (“System of a Down Awards”). Perhaps some of their most wellknown songs include “B.Y.O.B.”, “Aerials,” and “Chop Suey!.”

“B.Y.O.B.” was the first single from the band’s album Mezmerize in 2005 (“System of a Down”).

From the beginning, it can be assumed that the song will have political interpretations with the opening question, “Why do they always send the poor?” (Song Meanings). The line is followed by line after line of illustrating imagery: “Barbarisms by barbaras / With

pointed heels / Victorious victorious kneel / For brand new spankin’ deals” (Song Meanings). The alliteration in the first line and the repetition of “victorious” in the third line draw the reader into the song before one truly knows what it is about. The next two stanzas further explain: Marching forward hypocritic and Hypnotic computers You depend on our protection Yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth Everybody's going to the party, have a real good time Dancing in the desert, blowing up the sunshine (Song Meanings) Without directly saying so, the lines “You depend on our protection / Yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth” points to the government as the source of hypocrisy and barbarism. The last two lines of the second stanza sarcastically hides its true meanings behind the alliterative and rhyming image of war being a party where everyone has a good time. The song then ends by repeating the same questions over and over: “Where the fuck are you? / Where the fuck are you? / Why don’t presidents fight the war? / Why do they always send the poor?” (Song Meanings). The last lines clearly define the message of the song in a blunt way: the government is a bunch of lying hypocrites who send the poor to fight our wars. "B.Y.O.B." stands for "bring your own bomb" and this is definitely the message of the song,” asserts a System of a Down fan.

“It means that we should fight our own war with our own "bombs", ourselves, and not for someone else, as President Fucktard loves to do, constantly sending people poor in education, money, and purpose to fight his war” (Song Meanings).

Like “B.Y.O.B.,” “Aerials,” which was released on their album Toxicity in 2001, appears ambiguous unless one can interpret its subtle clues. The song begins:

The Lookout Life is a waterfall, We're one in the river, And one again after the fall.

Swimming through the void We hear the word, We lose ourselves, But we find it all? (Song Meanings) Although reflective and ambiguous, no literary devices are present with the exception of the metaphor comparing life to a waterfall in the first line. However, the song seems to be questioning the reader about their sense of self and choices just like in “B.Y.O.B.” Throughout the song and at the end of the song are the two repeated stanzas: Aerials, in the sky, When you lose small mind, You free your life.

Aerials, so up high, When you free your eyes, Eternal prize. (Song Meanings) There are several definitions of the adjective “aerial:” “1. of, in, or produced by the air; 2. inhabiting or frequenting the air; 3. operating on a track or cable elevated above the ground; 4. reaching far into the air; high; lofty” (“aerial”). In this context, “ariels” appears to be used as a noun referring to human beings who are “so up high” and upon losing close-mindedness are given freedom. Multiple other interpretations of this song have been conjured, though. One fan commented, “To me it’s about spiritual enlightenment. Life as a waterfall. The holistic nature of the world. The oneness…Aerials could be OBE (out of body experiences) if considered at face value, or just the accent to enlightenment, the loss of the closed mind and 'eternal prize'” (Song Meanings). While this is a plausible interpretation, the use of the word “aerials” and the line “When you lose small mind, / You free your life” seem to send the message that the sky is not the limit if one loses their close-mindedness. (System of a Down does not typically present the listener with Christian or pro-religious themes.) Another fan interpreted, “This song is about how people can lose their identities and become just like everyone else… As we go through life we are told lessons, but we ignore them. We forget who we really are in the mix of seeking the synthetic lifestyle…We strive for what we

Kayla Carr 26 want and when we get it, it still does not satisfy” (Song Meanings). This interpretation seems more likely to fit System of a Down’s typical political agenda because it talks about ways in which people are blindly following societal norms. The aba rhyme scheme throughout the song also seems to complement the light and airy feelings one would exude upon releasing themselves from the chains of close-mindedness and societal norms.

Another song from the album Toxicity, “Chop Suey!” again appears ambiguous and full of riddles from the beginning until some allusions are made at the end. This song more than others utilizes repetition and an erratic rhyme scheme: Wake up, Grab a brush and put a little (makeup), Grab a brush and put a little, Hide the scars to fade away the (shakeup) Hide the scars to fade away the, Why'd you leave the keys upon the table?

Here you go create another fable You wanted to, Grab a brush and put a little makeup, You wanted to, Hide the scars to fade away the shakeup, You wanted to, Why'd you leave the keys upon the table, You wanted to, (Song Meanings) From the first two stanzas, all that one can deduce is that someone is being fake, making excuses, and hiding their “scars.” However, the final stanzas point the reader to biblical text and sayings for clues: Father/Father/Father/Father Father/ Into your hands/I/commend my spirit, Father, into your hands, Why have you forsaken me, In your eyes forsaken me, In your thoughts forsaken me, In your heart forsaken, me oh, Trust in my self righteous suicide, I, cry, when angels deserve to die, In my self righteous suicide, I, cry, when angels deserve to die. (Song Meanings)

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU Interpretations of this song vary widely. “This song is about comparing suicide with martyrdom…The chorus is saying the fact that Jesus could be looked at from a viewpoint of suicide. Then the third verse ‘father, into your hands, I commend my spirit’ and ‘father, into your hands, why have you forsaken me’ are two of seven last words of Christ,” commented one fan (Song Meanings). The tendency to tie the interpretation of the song to religion was common; however, others found meanings tied to misunderstanding and genocide.

“To me this song is about someone who really wants to kill them self, but everyone around that person doesn't understand why. By definition "Chop Suey" is a Chinese dish made with a lot of mixed ingredients, similar to how modern society has mixed views on suicide,” expressed another System of a Down fan (Song Meanings). A third viewpoint points out, “In the end I think the song can be summed up by saying that the Armenians were killed for their beliefs just like the Jews were in the holocaust, but no one gave a damn about the Armenians. The Turks continue to deny the tragedy to this day” (Song Meanings). The song is very easy to interpret as one discussing suicide unless one knows the band’s background and heritage. Each band member has Armenian ancestry and are well-known for singing about politics and the Armenian genocide. Sam Ekizian, a resource on Armenian culture, agrees that “the title [“Chop Suey!”] comes from a poem of Father Armeni, who wrote about Armenia after the genocide of 1915. He asked God why have you forsaken me in your eyes. Father Armeni also said that in Armenia a self-righteous suicide has taken place” (Armenapedia).

Multiple musical interpretations are, likewise, found in the pop genre. More commonly known by her stage name Lorde, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor is a singer-songwriter from New Zealand. Like many current pop artists, she “became an Internet sensation at the age of 16 with the video for her debut single, ‘Royals,’” which now has over 250,000,000 views on YouTube (Monger). “Royals” won two Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance in 2014 (“Lorde Awards”). The up and coming artist has already achieved global fame with her “mix of arty, confessional bedroom pop and club-ready electro-rock” (Monger). Her most highly acclaimed songs to date include “Royals,” “Team,” and “The Love Club.”

27 A favorite of radio stations, “Royals” was released in 2013 on the album Pure Heroine. The rhythmic song’s chorus goes: But every song's like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin' in the bathroom Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams But everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece.

Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair And we'll never be royals It don't run in our blood That kind of luxe just ain't for us We crave a different kind of buzz Let me be your ruler, you can call me Queen Bee And baby I'll rule (I'll rule I'll rule I'll rule) Let me live that fantasy (Song Meanings) The mostly aabb rhyming chorus is full of literary devices which enhance the catchiness of the song. The alliteration throughout with “Grey Goose” and “bathrooms, blood stains, ball gowns;” the slant internal rhymes of Grey Goose and bathroom, care and love affair, luxe and us; and the subtle repetition of “but every,” “we don’t care,” and “let me” all contribute to the high lyrical quality of this song. With slight variations, most Lorde fans agree that Royals is “about how today's music is all about what is considered the ‘good life,’ filled with riches and fame,” but not everyone wants or needs wealth to be happy (Song Meanings). This interpretation is confirmed most in the lines “We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair” and “And we’ll never be royals / That kind of luxe just ain’t for us / We crave a different kind of buzz.” She directly points out that although all the pop music industry wants to sing about is being rich and famous, most people could care less and have found other things that make them happy.

From the same album, “Team” appears to have a similar contextual message but a slightly different way of expressing it: Call all the ladies out, they're in their finery A hundred jewels on throats

The Lookout A hundred jewels between teeth Now bring my boys in, their skin in craters like the moon The moon we love like a brother, while he glows through the room Dancin' around the lies we tell Dancin' around big eyes as well Even the comatose, they don't dance and tell We live in cities you'll never see onscreen Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things Livin' in ruins of a palace within my dreams And you know we're on each other's team (Song Meanings) In addition to the repetition of “a hundred jewels” and “dancin’ around,” the song ends with the repetition of “I’m kind of over getting’ told to throw my hands up in the air / So there” and “We’re on each other’s team / And you know we’re on each other’s team” (Song Meanings). Unlike “Royals,” “Team” utilizes much more repetition and an erratic, at times nonexistent, rhyme scheme. However, the song is still ambiguous and complex enough to draw multiple interpretations from listeners. Some claim that the song is “about being imperfect but loving being imperfect,” while others assert that “she sings about being confused and bored by the empty opulence that the world worships” (Song Meanings). Still another fan viewpoint argues that the song is “about teenagers coming of age and finding out that portrayals of life & love in the media are prettier and shinier than reality...and that real life isn't necessarily bad compared to a constant struggle for an unattainable ideal” (Song Meanings). In a way, all of these interpretations are correct in different ways. She refers to her boys having “skin in craters like a moon”; however, despite their imperfect appearance, they love those boys “like a brother, while he grows through the room.” These lines also suggest that the singer and other characters are teenagers. Despite the fact that they live “in cities you’ll never see onscreen” that aren’t “very pretty,” they “know how to run things” and are “on each other’s team.” They know their lives are not perfect, but they like things the way they are and can trust one another. This is in opposition that the lies many try to tell and the façade they put on by “dressing in their finery.”

Kayla Carr 28 Less commonly known from the album is “The Love Club,” which again challenges societal ideals using slightly different literary devices: I'm in a clique but I want out It's not the same as when I was punched In the old days there was enough The card games and ease with the bitter salt of blood I was in but I want out My mother's love is choking me I'm sick of words that hang above my head What about the kid? It's time the kid got free Be a part of the love club Everything will glow for you You'll get punched for the love club For the love club (Song Meanings) The song really does not appear to have a rhyme scheme, but it is still anything but clear. The complex lyrics are accented with literary devices here and there, such as the imagery of “bitter salt of blood” and the personification of “my mother’s love.” The words used for this song are more common, blunt but opaque. The repetition emphasizes being punched and “the love club,” which is presumably a nickname for the clique she is in. There appears to be some debate over whether the song is referring to love and relationships or the “popular crowd” in high school and beyond. “I think that the title ‘The Love Club’ is an allusion to the film ‘Fight Club’. She compares love and relationships, in some ways, to a fight club where we sometimes let ourselves get beat up and hurt to stay in the club we wanted so badly to be in,” stated a supporter of the love and relationship interpretation (Song Meanings).

Opposing perspectives argue that the bittersweet word choice in the song indicates that “the song is…about being in the "popular" clique and the pros and cons of being in it” (Song Meanings). Her use of the word “clique” in the very beginning points to lyrics which will tell about a friend group in high school. She wants out of it because “it’s not the same as when I was punched,” meaning she is not in love with her clique like she was in the beginning. Her mother’s love is choking her because all a mother wants is for her daughter to have friends and fit in, while Lorde (or the subject of the song) desperately wants out.

Literary analysis of songs by Lorde and System of a Down bring to light their similarities. Both bands had

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU lyrics which used repetition, literary devices such as alliteration and metaphors, and exuded ambiguity in all three of their respective analyzed songs. Arguably, each of their songs also commented on societal perspectives and hypocrisy. “B.Y.O.B.,” “Aerials,” and “Chop Suey!” talked about the hypocrisy of the government, getting lost in materialism, and societal views on suicide, respectively. Likewise, Lorde’s songs also talked about current societal issues. “Royals,” “Team,” and “The Love Club” discuss superficiality in the music industry, loving one’s imperfections and humble lifestyle, and the bittersweet blessing and headache of being in the popular crowd. System of a Down and Lorde used many of the same strategies, albeit in different quantities and with personal stylistic changes, to send deep messages about the way society thinks and behaves.

The differences between System of a Down and Lorde, and arguably heavy metal and pop in general, are few but powerful. In general, the System of a Down songs tended to focus on repetition of important words, phrases, and questions, while Lorde tended to focus on the catchiness of the lyrics. The repetition found in System of a Down’s songs may be due to the fact that it is often hard to understand the lyrics of a heavy metal song. It could also be that heavy metal bands like System of a Down are taking a more powerful approach to their message, just as they do with their loud instrumental sounds. On the other hand, Lorde’s music (and other songs that represent

29 pop) tend to focus solely on the lyrics of the song; therefore, it is more important that their lyrics be catchy so that the listener wants to sing along. Another difference is that System of a Down songs could be considered more vulgar, especially as seen by the repetition of “Where the fuck are you?” in “B.Y.O.B.,” while all of Lorde’s songs could be deemed radiofriendly. Blatant vulgarity or alleged “dark messages” have a history of being shunned in America due to our Puritanical roots, which is why catchy, radio-friendly, instrumentally-subtle songs such as those by Lorde and other musicians who represent pop tend to be favored over heavy metal, despite the commonalities among lyrical themes.

Although heavy metal and pop music are two distinct genres with completely different followers, the lyrics of each genre share a lot of similarities. Their subtle differences—particularly their degree of vulgarity—is the most probably predictor of where and if they will thrive, with more conservative cultures rejecting the heavy metal genre. Songs by System of a Down and Lorde are just a few of the many examples of the countless similarities shared between America’s most maligned and loved genres.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Erika Dietrick is a junior Honors College student pursuing biology major and a Hispanic studies minor. She works at the Honors College as a Coordinator of Marketing and in Dr. Claudia Jolls’ plant ecology laboratory. She is an active member of Word of Mouth, ECU’s spoken word poetry club. In her spare time, Erika enjoys writing, playing soccer, photography, and spending time with her family.

Bibliography "aerial." Dictionary.com. IAC. Web. 10 Apr 2014. <http://dictionary.reference.com/>.

Ekizian, Sam. "System of a Down." Armeniapedia. Critics Forum, 2005. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.

Guberman, Daniel. "Metal Moves to America." Global Heavy Metal. 2014. Lecture.

"System of a Down." MTV Artists. Viacom. Web. 9 Apr 2014. <http://www.mtv.com/artists/system-of-adown/>.

"System of a Down Awards." AceShowbiz. Denny Lee, et al.. Web. 10 Apr 2014. <http://www.aceshowbiz.com>.

Song Meanings. Web. 10 Apr 2014. <http://songmeanings.com/query/?query=system of a down&type=all>.

Song Meanings. Web. 10 Apr 2014. <http://songmeanings.com/query/?query=lorde&type=all>.

“Lorde Awards.” AceShowbiz. Denny Lee, et al. Web. 10 Apr 2014. <http://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/lorde/awards.html>.

Monger, James. "lorde." MTV Artists. Viacom. Web. 10 Apr 2014. <http://www.mtv.com/artists/lorde/>.

Weinstein, Deena. Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture. Da Capo Press, 2000. 2. Print.

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“Green Cancer”: Rhetorical Analysis of a Natural American Spirit Ad Virginia Brooks When looking at the refreshing, captivating, and appealing ad in Figure 1, the word “cancer” oddly doesn’t come to mind when reading “A NATURAL PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN TOBACCO AND MENTHOL,” which are the first words eyes meet when looking at this print ad. This advertisement for Natural American Spirit cigarettes promotes a more eco-friendly cigarette with a more original taste than any other. This company may argue that they are simply trying to manufacture a less harmful cigarette by using more efficient techniques of producing and marketing. The article, Harmful Health, supports that others are completely against the fact that something known to be the most preventable cause of death in the world today can be considered “eco-friendly.”

design images to captivate the reader’s attention and makes them interested in their product. Rhetorical analyzing of this print ad, through the strategies of ethos, pathos, kairos, and logos, and associating it with the elements of the author, audience, purpose, and form it to be an ultimately effective advertisement.

One way this advertisement has been found effective is through rhetorically analyzing the strategy of ethos, which allows the readers to understand more about the author of this product. An author can be referred to as the person of persons who have created a product that they can put their name on and have ownership of. Ethos is the strategy of persuasion something maintains. The author of natural American Spirit is the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which can be identified, in fine print, at the bottom of this print ad.

The public has been misled by past advertisements of this product; the sentence, “No additives in our tobacco does NOT mean a safer cigarette, “ found beside the warning label, is used to clarify to the public this cigarette is not less harmful than any other. This particular advertisement is from the comedy issue of the Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine. You can find it in the August 2011 addition on page fifty-nine. This ad has persuaded the public into investigating in their product of Natural American Spirit through ethos.

Figure 1. Natural American Spirit ad. http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/ad_gall ery/. Included here under fair use.

The advertisement uses the colors blue and green, background textures of trees and water, and the word natural to promote the idea of “green.” This print ads uses reliability, pathos, diction, color and graphic

Ethos is used in the sense that Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company is the first to introduce no-additives and less harmful substances into their cigarettes.

Smoking is the most preventable cause of death, along with the leading cause of pollution, in the world today.

The Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company has not only been working on ways to create a less harmful cigarette but also creating more ways to be more eco-friendly while distributing and marketing their products. Judy M., states that, this company has been researching and using techniques such as wind power, decreased chemicals, recycled packaging materials, and hybrid cars for sale-force. These ideas have created an abundance of different views and controversy; some readers are angry with this company and refuse to support their products.

Many non-smokers and eco-friendly green people

The Lookout cannot agree that something so harmful and responsible for so many deaths should be allowed to be considered to be marketed as “green.”

The amount of money that supports cigarettes in our economy only shows how much we should put an end to the thought of cigarettes being considered a part of “green marketing.” An average person smoking cigarettes may smoke up to a pack a day, which consists of twenty cigarettes. Dona Kiser states that a single pack of Camels, depending on taxes may cost anywhere from six to eight dollars and fifty cents. Dividing the whole cost of a pack of cigarettes by the amount of cigarettes provided in each box, gives that each cigarette would cost anywhere from thirty to forty-two cents depending on tax. Such a small number does not put the proper meaning in the mind, to multiply the price of a pack a day, for a whole year, you could be spending anywhere from $2,202 to $3,103. Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company is familiar with this, which is why they have been able to sell more of their product by marketing two packs of Natural American Spirit cigarettes for only two dollars.

This advertisement is also effective through the use of pathos, the strategy of persuasion used to create an emotional appeal, which directly affect how the audience may feel. An audience is a group of people who participate in ways that are acceptable, pertaining to the form or object they that is promoted. The audience will more likely invest in something if it appears to be enjoyable to them. Whether its commercials, newspaper, magazine articles, billboards etc., the media is the easiest way to target the audience you are trying to reach. When a designer jean company for teens is trying to sell a product, they will most likely advertise in teen magazines or on television channels teens are more likely to read and watch. This ensures that the produces will have their product seen and will benefit from it. When creating an advertisement for the public, many aspects are incorporated into the ad. A lot of thought is taken into consideration of how the ad will be perceived as a “whole.” One way to allow the audience to respond is through pathos.

Pathos is used to persuade the audience by the use of emotion. The first noticeable aspect of this advertisement is the thick, dark, and bold words at the top of the page that read, “A NATURAL PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN TOBACCO AND MENTHOL.” Almost everyone in the United States of age to smoke is familiar with the harmful effects smoking has on your health. The word “NATURAL”

Kayla Carr 32 creates the image that this cigarette is clean and untouched, while the word “PARTNERSHIP” is representing the relationship between two things that the public usually thinks poorly of. When connecting the two words tobacco and menthol with natural, readers are tricked into thinking that maybe this type of tobacco and menthol aren’t bad for you since they are all natural and contain no additives.

The sentence, “We use premium whole leaf, natural tobacco, and a filter containing granules infused with natural menthol to create a taste that’s anything but ordinary” is an example of pathos. This also gives the audience the wrong idea that there is nothing wrong or harmful about smoking this type of cigarette. At the top of each cigarette box is a picture of an eagle, also recognized as one of the most meaningful symbols in America. The eagle symbolizes freedom, strength, and courage. Placing this symbol on cigarette boxes represents the meaning of a product that should be respected and looked up to in America, ironic since this product kills so many Americans.

The use of pathos, in multiple Natural American Spirit advertisements, has allowed the marketers to reach their “wanted” audience. Merlin Miclat states that the advertisers of this company have used magazines read by mostly women, such as Elle, Esquire, Lucky, and Marie Claire, to help promote this product to their audience: “…these ads continue to support activists’ claims that tobacco companies have a long history of enticing women and children to take up smoking. And by featuring ads with the words ecofriendly” and “organic” all over the place, it is not unreasonable for some people to believe these cigarettes are not only healthier for them, but also less harmful to the environment.” For these exact reasons, there have been many lawsuits made against the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. The audiences of this product have the right to know and would be informed about everything a product has to offer, not only for the audience’s benefit but the producers too.

When rhetorically analyzing this advertisement the public may be unaware of the effects cigarettes cause to our environment, this advertisement does little to inform them. Both people and animals, who don’t smoke, can die of second hand smoke and direct environmental impacts of this source. Donna Kiser states, cigarette use today is practiced by over one-third of adult population; this is equivalent to more than 1.1 million people.

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU Another way this ad is found effective is through the strategy kairos, which allows the audience to understand the purpose of this ad. Purpose is the meaning of an object to be reached; it may be desirable or have intention to inform. Kairos is the understanding of background knowledge or time and place of the overall scheme of something. The purpose of this advertisement is to get the public to support Natural American Spirit cigarettes by investing in this product. The use of kairos is important when producing an advertisement to the public. The question advertisers often ask themselves may be something like, “What will the audience gain from the advertisement knowing or having little information about the product to begin with?” In order for cigarette companies to sell their products that they are required, by law, to provide warning of the harmful long-term affects smoking causes. When promoting a product to the public the last thing you want to do is inform them that the product will be harmful to them.

In this advertisement, kairos is the familiarity and understanding of the history of cigarettes and how Natural American Spirit cigarettes were originated.

This allows the audience to understand more about how this type of cigarette could be positive or negative to the environment. Natural American Spirit, represented by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, is owned by an independent subsidy of Reynolds American, founded in 1982. There are thirteen different types of Natural American Spirit cigarettes sold on the market. Each of the thirteen types is flavored differently and can be distinguished by their individual box color.

An article of Natural American Spirit offers that, Natural American Spirit sells five different types of patches, three different types of tins and has created a “roll your own” tobacco option, which helps promote the theme of Native American’s. The two dollars for two packs of Natural American Spirit cigarettes also includes pouches but does not include flavored tins.

You may also only use one certificate per every twelve months; this can be found in fine print under the promotion code on this ad.

Harmful Health informs that each individual type of Natural American Spirit cigarettes is made up of different percentages of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide and contains twenty five percent more picked tobacco than all other cigarettes sold, The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart

33 rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels.” Though Natural American Spirit cigarettes don’t contain any additives, is it right for the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company to argue American Spirits are any better for you if they, like all cigarettes, still contain nicotine and carbon monoxide?

Last, this ad has been found effective through the strategy of logos, which may differ depending on the form. Form pertains to the text of which you are acquiring information from. Logos is the layout or logic in which the information is introduces to the readers. The form, of which a product is introduces to the public, plays a very important role in a products success. Natural American Spirit, was introduces to us by print advertisement. When creating a print advertisement, the use of logos is thought out very carefully. This advertisement uses techniques such as color, language, slogans, promotion code, and emphasis to create the format and tone, and promote Natural American Spirit cigarettes by capturing the audience’s attention.

The background color used in this advertisement plays an important role to the audience. The color, blue and white represent this product as something clean and refreshing. The coloring is darker near the top and washes out becoming almost all the way white towards the bottom of the ad. If you pay close attention you can see that the reasoning behind this is because the warning and clarification, two things the company may try to avoid informing the public about, are in white too. Because of this white on white effect we do not notice the warning and clarifications of this product as much as we would on a more contrasting color. The texture used in the background color, is a mixture if both trees and water. These are two things found in the environment that work together in our ecosystem, this parallels with the advertisement’s idea of green marketing. We can infer, by looking at the details in this ad, this product is trying to represent a more ecofriendly alternative unlike other cigarette companies.

The middle of this advertisement contains a picture of two Natural American Spirit cigarette boxes.

The colors used, green and blue connect directly to the natural and environmental theme. On the box of each cigarette case is a picture of a Native American, who is smoking. This picture is used to symbolize those who practices and used natural substances for living out their everyday lives. The Native Americans were native to America, giving the idea that we too should practice what has been practiced for a long time on our land.

The Lookout Beside the picture of the cigarette boxes, you are given a promotion and phone number you can call, to receive two boxes of cigarettes for two dollars. The “2 Dollars” is emphasized in red while the promotion code is emphasized in neon-yellow to call attention to the audience. By calling the number to save money on cigarettes we are promoting their company, which is beneficial to their company in return, a win-win situation.

Today, the world is more polluted than ever before. Every little amount of help counts. After all we have to take into account that we live in America, Natural American Spirit protects that word American, by the fact that they have the freedom to make their own choices for their products. We’re all allowed the freedom to be smokers or not to be smokers; however, it is important for the public to know the harmful, addictive, and money consuming effects of smoking.

Through rhetorical analysis of this advertisement, it is possible to look at a cigarette advertisement and see only the good. Sometimes warnings are there for a reason, we are meant to read them. This ad is effective to the reader through the use of all five criteria, reliability, pathos, diction, color, and graphic images.

Each of the criteria is incorporated into each strategy and element.

The use of color promotes the theme of “green marketing” and “eco-friendly,” though cigarettes are simply neither of the two. They used green and blues or cool colors with the background texture of water and trees to include environmental and economic aspects.

The washed out background played an important role, the warning and clarification labels are almost unseen.

This advertisement also used color to emphasize the certain aspects the company wants the audience to take important notice in. The graphic design of the trees and water, in the background, parallels with the colors used in this advertisement. The picture of the Native American agrees with the name Natural American Spirit, Native Americans were known to have a lot of spirit. The eagle symbolizes something Americans respect, along with our freedom.

The use of diction in this advertisement is what causes the public to feel falsely informed about this product. The word use of such, “natural” goes along with the environmental and color theme that this product is trying to thread into its company. This advertisement uses certain words that create a positive image in the readers’ minds about cigarettes, because they are associated with the environment in a positive

Kayla Carr 34 way. The reliability of this advertisement makes the audience believe and trust this product. Using the percentage of “100” demonstrates that this product contains no additives creates a positive image in our minds. This advertisement creates another false sense of reliability in the way the ad’s telephone number is provided in bold black font. Last, the use of pathos throughout this advertisement makes the audience feel that they may be able to relate more, Most American are familiar with the fact that smoking is harmful to the environment. This type of cigarette was introduced to the reader to sound not only less harmful to the public but also less harmful to the smoker, making the reader more likely to invest in this type of cigarette.

We are not given the information to conclude that this product is just as harmful as any cigarette is to the body. This advertisement is rhetorically effective in ways that the audience is easily tricked into thinking Natural American Spirit cigarettes are the “healthy” cigarettes and that since they contain no additives they aren’t harmful. Lawsuits may not agree with the idea of eco-friendly cigarettes, but the intended audiences of this product do. A cigarette will always be a cigarette, they may contain no additives but they can still cause cancer; it may be considered more “green” but it is still cancerous.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Currently I am a senior majoring in Interpersonal Organizational Communications and minoring in Psychology. I really enjoy writing for creative and research purposes. In the past year I have had the opportunity of getting published for writing a poem for Expressions magazine on campus and for writing a memoire for a magazine called the Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Henrey. Though my concentration in communication is IOC I have had two PR internships and see myself continuing with that path after graduation.

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Works Cited Harmful Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes. QuitSmokingStop, n.d. Web, 11 October Keith, “Natural American Spirit.” Tobacco Products, 19 January 2011. Web.13 Kiser, Donna. “American Spirit Cigarettes VS. Camels.” Associated Content, 22 May 2007. Web. 11 October 2011.

Miclat, Merlin. “Activists Claim Eco-friendly Cigarettes Ads Are ‘Greenwash.’” GreenAnswers, 27 June 2011. Web. 14 October 2011.

Miller, Mark. “Can Cigarette Brands Use Green Marketing?” Brand Channel, 28 July 2011. Web. 11 October 2011.

M. Judy. “Eco-friendly cigarettes? What?” Care2 Make A Difference, 29 July 2011. Web. 11 October 2011.

Natural American Spirit. Advertisement. Gentlemen’s Quarterly August 2011, p.59. Print.

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Eshu and the Human Condition Tyler M. Beasley Human beings are defined by an inherent and undeniable instinct for unpredictability—that is, the human race finds the task of remaining ever constant daunting and impossible. As a species that has a relentless desire to achieve greater feats, more risks must be taken—more decisions must be made—more opportunities to try and, therefore, fail at certain activities or practices. Within this desire, the crux of humanity, and what distinguishes it, is found something known as the human condition. This paper will discuss the role of the trickster within the context of the human condition—specifically, Eshu of Yoruba. This paper will investigate the relationship between Eshu and the human condition; essentially, the commentary that can be provided regarding how Eshu informs this archetype. I will examine closely the symbolism of certain aspects of this deity, relating it to the facets of the human condition. It will be noted that this deity exists, whether consciously or subconsciously, to address the aforementioned relentless desire that human beings possess.

The Human Condition The human condition is a subject that finds much discourse in the fields of philosophy, religion, and psychology alike. While it is certain that each respected discipline defines this term differently, all would agree that it does, indeed, exist. Simply put, the human condition is not simple. It is a term that attempts to envelop the concerns, questions, and issues involved with daily human life. This term captures the moral struggles of human-kind; “why do we do the things that we do?”

Social norms have created boundaries distinguishing quite clearly good from evil—labels as to what is considered appropriate and what is considered inappropriate. Of course, in an ancient and modern context, laws were and have been fashioned in order to enforce these labels. Yet, even in the face of these social definitions, the human race finds inner-conflict regarding certain ideals. For example, how can human beings exist in loving, caring and compassionate roles while simultaneously remaining aggressive, self-centered and harsh? Several institutions have been created with the hope of easing the prominence of this question within the human mind; Christianity, for example, offers repentance for humans who have crossed

these boundaries, conflicting with the internal principles that outline that human’s moral soundness. Proof texting surely provides endorsements for the notions of repentance—Matthew, Acts, and countless other Christian scriptures speak of repentance. However, as the extent of this condition does not reside solely in modest matters, justifications for this phenomenon continue to grow. Additionally, as humans discover piercing questions regarding the meaning of life, the role of the soul, etc., this condition finds rebirth constantly.

The Trickster Trickster refers to someone or something (usually divine) that has been created solely for the purpose of reminding humans of their flaws. While some may understand this to be a character that survives only in native, indigenous areas of the world, it resides in industrialized, mainstream localities as well. For example, the infamous Brer Rabbit found in American folklore is an iconic trickster, yet is rarely distinguished as such.1 Some scholars suggest that in Christianity, Peter is a trickster—this argument finds its legitimacy regarding the name change and the somewhat bipolar nature that his persona hosts.2 With this, it becomes perceptible that tricksters exist in a social understanding, as well as a religious one; for that reason, it is arguable that certain tricksters span cross-culturally.

Uniquely, different narratives have been created for different social/cultural situations that may arise and may be attributed to the trickster. However, as each cultural and social construct is distinct in its own way, different situations must be confronted and, therefore, different trickster beings are formulated through historical myths.

Trickster narratives have within them a moral message; a more complex meaning is always deeply embedded in the

1 Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Brer Rabbit," accessed April 17, 2014, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/78857/Brer -Rabbit.

2William Hynes and William Doty, Mythical Trickster Figures: Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1993), 161-64.

(Britannica ND)

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situation being depicted. These messages directly relate to some feature of the human condition—that is to say, they are lessons for understanding and interpreting these explorations of the human mind regarding purpose, meaning, life, etc. As we will see, Eshu addresses this concept of the human condition matchlessly; given the reverence that Eshu receives in the Yoruba tradition, it is likely that this community reveres the trickster more seriously than its contemporary, industrialized counterparts.

Eshu of Yoruba Attempting to indefinitely define something as complex and intricate as the trickster is a daunting, impossible task for academics to undertake; Eshu is most certainly no exception to this claim. Eshu is an Orisha (deity) of the Yoruba theological system; Eshu is commonly noted by locals as being sexually ambiguous; however, they commonly refer to this Orisha in the masculine form (he, him, his, etc.). Eshu is believed to usher offering to other members of the Orisha, especially the supreme god, Olodumare (Olorun).3 Eshu also functions as a mediator between the earthly realm and the divine. A parallel between Catholicism and the traditional Yoruba religion may be made. Eshu can be understood in the same context as a saint is understood in Catholicism–this reference is not made regarding the classification or importance of the Orisha as it relates to the order of the cosmos–rather, his role within the faith. Eshu serves as the link between human prayers and the reception of the divine, much as the saints aid in the delivery and beseeching of humans to the Heavenly Father. Eshu, however, is temperamental and jealous regarding his veneration and offerings. Certain narratives illustrate the jealous tendencies of this Orisha when he does not receive sacrifice, receives it improperly, or is forgotten during pact-making. With this narrative, Eshu begins to address the spiteful nature of human beings. However, as he also proves useful during successful ushering of sacrifices and prayers to gods, the duality of human nature (human condition) is brought to light; Eshu can exist in both a positive and negative mode. With this complexity and duality represented through Eshu, the want for

justification of this human condition begins to surface in a religious context.

Symbolism and the Importance of Sexual Ambiguity Previously noted, Eshu is considered to be sexually ambiguous. While several deities are classified as being sexually ambiguous, Eshu’s placement into this category is not only relevant, but significant as well. Some religions argue that one gender is naturally more fallible than the other. Eve, in Christianity for example, has often been regarded as the originator of sin and, therefore, females have subsequently been viewed as more sinful and allaround inferior creatures to men—we have seen this belief exemplified in ancient frameworks when women were considered no more than property of their male 4 counterparts. Yet, as Eshu can take the form of any animal or gender, the lines defining one gender as more imperfect become blurred. Eshu, known as Mawu Lisa in some communities, is considered to be supreme because, in some cases, the name Mawu is used without its accompanying name, Lisa—significance can be found in this, as it notes the irrelevance of gender regarding the power construct of the Yoruba cosmos.5 The lack of definition between a male or female deity reveals the position that the Yoruba people take regarding gender superiority. Unlike their Christian counterparts, the Yoruba people acknowledge that the human condition affects both sexes, without controllability—according to the Yoruba belief system (theological system), both male and females are fallible; Eshu, being sexually ambiguous, represents to the Yoruba community’s belief that not only are the sexes equal during fallibility, but that the cosmos construct of the Yoruba deity system is also imperfect.

This idea creates a relatable argument for the community, obscuring the separation of mortal and immortal (the divine and the human) perfection.

Eshu, Sacrifice and the Human Condition Eshu is acknowledged as a greedy spirit—that is, he is

known for creating mayhem unless he is properly recognized during occasions of sacrifice. With this, it is

Witcombe, Christopher L.C.E. "Witcombe.sbc.edu." Sweet Briar College. 2000. http://witcombe.sbc.edu/evewomen/3eveidentity.html (accessed April 16, 2014).

5 Parrinder, Geoffrey, African Mythology (London: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd, 1976) 21. (Parrinder 1976) 4

3

Ray, Benjamin C, African Religions: Symbol, Ritual and Community (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1999), 1314.

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU necessary to understand the role that Eshu plays in ritual and ceremony. The Yoruba religious construct dictates the importance of sacrifice to the Orishas during prayer.

When the followers of the faith make a request, a sacrifice is expected to accompany the request. Eshu, as previously noted, is considered to be an usher between the earthly realm and the divine realm. During rituals, a sacrifice is supposed to be given Eshu—if the offer is given properly, Eshu is more willing to approach the Orishas on behalf of the human. However, if Eshu is not properly recognized through sacrifice, during these ceremonies, disorder is expected to emerge within the community. The Yoruba community attributes this misfortune, developing from improper or lack of sacrifice, to Eshu’s trickster nature. The Yoruba community has created a myth that attempts to explain this type of developed confusion.

A story tells how Eshu, wearing a cap that was colored red and blue on different sides, walked between two friends who were standing on either side of a path.

The friends argued about the color of Eshu’s cap because it appeared red from one side and blue from the other.

When Eshu returned along the same path in the opposite direction, they fell to arguing again, because the colors appeared differently; each argued that the other had been correct the first time. They began fighting until neighbors broke up the fight and took them to the king’s court.

Eshu suddenly entered the king’s court and announced that he had caused the two friends to fight because they had not sacrificed to him when they had made their bond of friendship.6 This narrative explained the Yoruba concept of chaos and the importance that is placed on remembering Eshu during sacrifice. Previously noted, Yoruba concepts of sacrifice strictly discuss the role of Eshu within the practice—this example illustrated a cause and effect relationship between neglecting Eshu during sacrifice and the communal effect that comes from this neglect. It is interesting to note how the community emphasizes the significance of dispute amongst friends, something that the western world may view as childish. Communities such as that of the Yoruba people attempt to explain these occurrences through narratives that are relatable to their people. To re-emphasize the importance of an earlier idea, the divine being relatable to its worshippers is

6

Ray, Benjamin C, African Religions: Symbol, Ritual and Community (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1999), 14.

39 extremely significant. Communities, regardless of the religion, prefer a deity system that somehow relates to suffering. Fertility, weather, harvest and famine are all aspects that humanity looks to religion to address; Eshu explains these occurrences through narratives that illustrate a complete disregard for sacrifice or improper sacrifice—it is further explained through Eshu’s greed.

Without acknowledgment during sacrifice, the Yoruba people expect this outcome from Eshu.

Eshu of the Diaspora – Santeria and Candomble (Brazilian Umbanda) Several religions have migrated from what is considered their native lands. The area that is then settled by these religions is known as the Diaspora. During the era of slave trade between Africa and the early colonies, African slaves were forced to uproot and inhabit a new land, laboriously working on rice, tobacco, cotton, and sugarcane plantations; subsequently, the native cultural and religious practices of the African slaves accompanied them to the new colonies. As these colonies were founded upon the doctrines of the Catholic Church, the slave population was forced to recognize Catholicism as a superior religion. The slaves’ Catholic counterparts saw African religions as backwards, primitive, tribal, and savage. With the constant suppression of native religious practices, the slave population sought to please both their catholic captors and their traditional forms of worship.

As a result, many syncretic religions emerged. These blended religions would employ aspects of both traditional African religious practices and Catholicism.

Namely, icons were placed in slave worship areas–they were used to represent African deities in a manner that was acceptable to the Catholic tradition–they were also used for veneration and worship.

In this setting, religions such as Santeria and Candomble developed new understandings. A trickster deity can be identified in both Santeria and Candomble; yet, in these religions, this deity is not known as Eshu.

Santeria, found in Central and South America, recognizes this Orisha as Elegua. While the name of the deity is different, the characteristics and traits of its powers parallel to those of the Yoruba Eshu. This Santerian deity likely equates to Eshu because of the migration of Yoruba practices into the Diaspora. In Candomble, an African religion found mainly in Brazil, Eshu is recognized as

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Exu.7 Again, the characteristics and aspects of this deity’s powers can be linked to those of the Yoruba Eshu.

Interestingly, however, the depictions are quite different between the respected communities and religions.

The Images of Eshu, Elegua, and Exu: Similarities and Differences The Yoruba depictions of Eshu can be described as indigenous in the sense of them being traditional. That is, they are mostly, if not all, carved from wood and are representing a deity that is androgynous. The carvings are simple, yet clearly relay the Yoruba perception of Eshu.

The Yoruba culture shows a parallel between the humanistic and the divine realms—interestingly, the deity appears to be neither positive nor negative in representation. This offers an interesting commentary regarding the role of Eshu in the Yoruba community.

This type of depiction acknowledges the encouraging aspects of Eshu (successfully ushering offerings to the Orishas), as well as the damaging aspects of Eshu (illness or harm brought to someone who has not conducted offerings properly or given Eshu due respect during the process). As Eshu is acknowledged for both positivity and negativity within the Yoruba community, it is interesting that artistic depiction of Eshu of Yoruba appears to take no definite side regarding whether the deity is truly beneficial or harmful.

Elegua, representing Eshu in the Santerian religion, is represented seemingly syncretic with its Yoruba counterpart. Depictions represent, quite clearly, that the deity came from African roots. That is, Elegua appears in Santerian representations as an African human–at least, this argument can be made. Whereas Eshu appears as an androgynous being in the Yoruba depictions, clearly represented as divine, an untrained eye could not discern Elegua from another African or African-American human.

This deity is represented in an exceptionally humanistic manner—this deity does not appear to be obviously divine, for it is not represented with any obviously divine aspects. Elegua is revered and respected greatly in the Santerian tradition; however, to those who are not familiar with the Santerian cosmos, Elegua would not appear as a deity–he would be seen as a human figure. It can be argued that this human look that Elegua is

Kayla Carr 40 represented with shows the deity’s relationship to all of the Santerian community. Because of Elegua’s human-like appearance, this deity can relate to the woes and trials of the world. For this reason, Elegua is recognized as “mischievous, childlike…” commenting on its 8 involvement in human suffering and misfortune.

Candomble acknowledges Exu as the trickster deity.

An earlier section of the paper discussed the effect of colonization on African religions and their movement into the Diaspora. One such influence on African religions during colonization was that of the Christian missionaries. In Candomble, the influence of Christianity can be seen through the representations of their deities.

Exu, for example (as the trickster is being discussed in this paper), is seen in light that quite clearly has Christian qualities. The Yoruba Eshu is seen through wooden carvings and androgynous representations, the Santerian Elegua is seen as an African man, and the Candomble Exu is represented as a demonic, red being. This can, of course, be paralleled to the Christian depictions of Satan.

The prominence of syncretism in African religions, due to colonization, is rampant. Unfortunately, as the African religions migrated to the Diaspora, they were forced to abandon some of their original practices. It is clear that one, unarguable syncretism between Christianity, and/or Catholicism, and Candomble is the representation of the Exu, the trickster deity. While it is true that the Candomble practitioners and worshippers acknowledge Exu as the divine messenger, and the owner of this world, the same idea does not translate to the Christian Satan.9 It is interesting that the Candomble representation of Eshu (Exu) is known as a trickster god when its images are so clearly influenced by Christian/Catholic teachings. For this reason, it is perceptible that the deity would be understood as only harmful in Candomble, as its Christian counterpart is known only for negativity and maliciousness. However, it is refreshing to see that some of the early African religious teachings remained unscathed by colonization and, therefore, early Christian influence.

Cashion, William E., II. “African Gods in America.”

Communicating Christ among Folk Religionists. 2002. http://www.missiology.org/old/folkreligion/articlecashion .htm#evangelicalresponse (Accessed April 29, 2014).

(William E. Cashion 2002) 9 http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/ychirea1/Exu2.ht ml. (Accessed April 29, 2014).

8

7

Tripod, http://members.tripod.com/omo_ileosikan/elegba.htm

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU In light of the parallels between Candomble and Christianity, it is arguable that Candomble shares the ideas of the Yoruba community regarding Eshu (Exu) and the human condition. Both communities recognize the significance of sacrifice and recognition during rituals to this particular Orisha. Yet, while Candomble recognizes that this Orisha can be potentially harmful, the religion also recognizes the positive aspects that can be brought by the deity. Candomble understands the significance of this deity, as well—Exu is needed to usher the offerings to the Orishas and to beseech them on behalf of the humans. Because of this, they address the human condition in a similar way as those of the Yoruba community.

Illness, the Human Condition, and Eshu Due to the religious beliefs that accompany the Yoruba community, as well as the Santeria and Candomble religions, it is perceptible that they address illness in the same fashion that they address other issues stemming from the human condition. It has been noted previously that natural issues, famine, illness, fatality, etc., are considered to be issues that spur from the human condition. As these religions acknowledge most negativity as the work possessing spirits, attacking worshippers, they also view the solution as appeasing the deities they believe are responsible for this. Of course, as Eshu (Exu, Elegua) is understood to be both positive and negative in each respected community, he is blamed quite often for the occurrence of such illnesses. It is equally arguable that the Yoruba community understands illness to come from the improper or lack of acknowledgment of the trickster deity during rituals. An earlier citation was made regarding a myth of Eshu’s involvement in community turmoil; it does not seem extreme to attribute occurrences, such as illness, to Eshu’s communal involvement. As Eshu is also understood to be involved in divination, it is likely that he must also be appeased during consultation of a cure.

Perhaps the communities, Yoruba, Santeria and Candomble, grasped this concept of appeasement and offered additional sacrifice to Eshu in order to restore

41 health to those who were ill. This is, once again, an interesting commentary regarding the human condition.

The idea that natural occurrences can be attributed to the divine and the human is fascinating. A relationship exists between the two—the understanding that because of human neglect during sacrifice and religious rituals, the divine realm becomes involved uniquely to these communities.

Conclusion The relationship between the Yoruba theology and the human condition is unarguable. It is quite clear that links can be established regarding the connection between Eshu and human faults. The Yoruba community recognizes that, because of human inadequacy (during rituals), the cosmos become involved in daily life. Interestingly, the Yoruba community recognizes that certain situations occur because of their neglect during certain times; however, they also understand that proper acknowledgment to the divinity system will prevent this from happening. This suggests that the divinity system is not only more complex than that of its western counterpart, but more intriguing as well. The notion that certain situations arise from certain deities demonstrates a deep understanding of religion, as well as its potential interactions with humanity. In Christianity, it is argued that negativity comes from Satan, the source of evil; yet, in the Yoruba belief system, as well as Santeria and Candomble, negativity and positivity have the possibility of coming from the same deity. This unique form of worship offers insight regarding the community’s view of the human condition. The fact that both good and evil can come from a being demonstrates the unpredictable nature of the human condition. It also demonstrates that both humanity and divinity are imperfect and, therefore, can easily be related to one another. It is arguable that, because of this unique perspective regarding the “human condition,” the Yoruba religion and those who have migrated to the Diaspora remain to be largely active in modernity.

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Kayla Carr 42

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Tyler Beasley is a junior at East Carolina University, majoring in Religious Studies. He has completed and presented research regarding Biblical alliteration, as well as research regarding the "human condition" and certain deities of African and African diasporic religions. He was recently invited to the University of Oxford – in the United Kingdom – to speak on his research on Eshu of Yoruba, an exploration of parallels between religious concepts and the human condition in that specific community. After obtaining his B.A. degree in Religious Studies, he wishes to obtain his M.A. in religions of the Americas.

Works Cited Britannica, The Editors of the Encyclopædia. "Britanica Academic Edition ." Britanica Online Encyclopedia . ND. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/78857/Brer-Rabbit (accessed April 17, 2014).

Falola, Toyin. Esu: Yoruba God, Power, and Imaginative Frontiers. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2013.

Gonzalez-Wippler, Migene. Santeria: The Religion: Fatih - Rites - Magic. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1994.

Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998.

Hynes, William, and William Doty. Mythical Trickster Figures: Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 1993.

Exu: The Divine Messenger. http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/ychirea1/Exu2.html (accessed April 29, 2014).

Who is Elegba? http://members.tripod.com/omo_ileosikan/elegba.htm (accessed April 28, 2014).

Parrinder, Geoffrey. "Heavenly Twins." In African Mythology , by Geoffrey Parrinder, 21. London: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd, 1976.

Ray, Benjamin C. "Eshu: Spirit of Order and Chaos." In African Religions: Symbol, Ritual, and Community, by Benjamin C. Ray, 13-14. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1999.

William E. Cashion, II. African Gods in America. 2002. http://www.missiology.org/old/folkreligion/articlecashion.htm#evangelicalresponse (accessed April 29 , 2014).

Williams, David. The Trickster Brain: Neuroscience, Evolution and Narrative. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2012.

Witcombe, Christopher L.C.E. "Witcombe.sbc.edu." Sweet Briar College. 2000. http://witcombe.sbc.edu/evewomen/3eveidentity.html (accessed April 16, 2014).

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Affordable Care Act’s Effect on Physicians’ Workload and Compensation Jamine Ifedi ABSTRACT: The goal of my research was the evaluation of the effect of the ACA on the workload and compensation for physicians set to take place in the coming year. The principal goal of the Affordable Care Act is to provide affordable health insurance for all Americans regardless of tax bracket classification. The ACA was signed into effect back in March of 2010, but still has many hurdles to overcome before its full implementation. As these abundant problems are reaching their resolutions, transformation will ensue.

Amongst these many changes are the tens of millions of citizens that would not otherwise have any other form of health insurance. These citizens will now either be insisted upon enrolling in an affordable form of health insurance or receive government issued health insurance. Even with its own share of issues to overcome there are portions of the act that will be implemented January of 2014. The dramatic inflow of new patients due to the extensive coverage of the ACA will broaden the already severe shortage of physicians facing the health system. This seemingly insurmountable problem can only be solved if all phases of health care contribute to the resolution. Ultimately under the Affordable Care Act, physicians will work longer hours for less compensation.

Introduction In the wake of the passage of the new health reform legislation the entire landscape of the United States health care system is unclear for physicians. The only sure fact is the country has never before seen a change of this magnitude. The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been met with much resistance from the Republican Party and other opponents seeking to derail and defund this piece legislation. The principal goal of the Affordable Care Act is to provide affordable health insurance for all Americans regardless of tax bracket classification. Consequently, the ACA was signed into effect back in March of 2010, but still has many hurdles to overcome before its full implementation. As these copious problems are reaching their resolutions, transformation will begin to ensue. Upon these many changes are the tens of millions of citizens that would not otherwise have any other form of health insurance (Minow, 2012). These citizens will now either be insisted upon enrolling in an affordable form of health insurance or receive government issued health insurance. Even with its own share of issues to overcome there are portions of the act that were implemented January of 2014. The focus of this research is the impending effect of the ACA on the workload and compensation for physicians set to take place in the coming year. The dramatic influx of new patients due to the extensive coverage of the ACA will broaden the already severe shortage of physicians facing

the health system. This seemingly insurmountable problem can only be solved if all phases of health care contribute to the resolution. Currently, physicians work longer hours for less compensation under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Medicare Medicare accounts for 11% of the United States $10.8 trillion of federal government spending annually (Davis, 2011, p.8). During the course of the next decade the landscape of Medicare will change drastically by reformatting how it subsidizes certain programs and attempts to entice primary care providers by erecting bonuses for primary health physicians. The fate of Medicare will determine the fortune of a large number of physicians in the future since Medicare covers most of these physicians’ patients. By understand the complexities of the Medicare system the future outlook of the workload for general practitioners can be better predicted.

There are four components of Medicare: Part A, Part B, Part C and Part D. Part A consists of the Health Insurance (HI) program, covers inpatient, skilled nursing facilities, home health, and hospice services. Alterations to this part of Medicare will have an effect on the reimbursement for physicians working in the hospitals, but will have a more profound effect on nurses since they tend to work for home health

The Lookout agencies, hospice centers, and skilled nursing facilities more often than medical doctors. Part B contains the Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI), covers physician, outpatient, home health, and preventative services. Since Part B covers physicians alterations to this part will have the greatest effect on medical doctors. Not only does part B cover physicians, but it also promotes prevention. This means that its goal is to get patients in for check-ups sooner and regularly.

Expanding this subdivision of Medicare has the greatest potential of all 4 parts to increase the compensation for these practitioners (Braun, 2012).

Part C provides a private alternative to the traditional fee-for-service Medicare plan and also consists of the Medicare Advantage (MA). These advantage plans are run by private companies and are usually combined to cover ones doctorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visit. This subdivision will not have a great influence on the compensation for the majority of physicians since it is usually just and additive to patients insurance and is not required. Part D funds outpatient prescription drug benefits delivered by the different private plans under contract with Medicare (Davis, 2011). Since Part D deals with prescription medicines, the health care provider affected the most by its expansion will be pharmacists and their technicians. Physiciansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; compensation will not be directly affected, but their workload may since more patients will have to be seen to receive prescriptions.

In 2011, provisions supplied by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), affected all four of these components of Medicare. The changes were generally aimed at increasing deductibles and premiums for most individuals who earn over a certain threshold for singles and couples. The other goal for Medicare through the ACA is to provide greater accessibility by providing free wellness checks, personalized prevention plans, and no-cost Medicare covered preventative services. By increasing access to primary care, Medicare will essentially increase the demand for primary care substantially. To service these new individuals, Medicare provided a 10% bonus to health practitioners if 60% of their services provided are for primary care (Davis, 2011, p. 10). It is unknown whether the 10% bonus will be enough to attract the amount of primary medical personnel need given the lucrative salaries attainable in other fields of medicine.

Kayla Carr 44

Affordable Care Act Due to the passage of the Affordable Care Act there will be a greater need for primary physicians to meet the future demand that will come along with the millions of newly insured citizens. Along with newly insured patients are new forms of reimbursement, in particular the reimbursement cuts that will mainly affect physician-owned medical groups. It is becoming clear to physicians and hospitals that they will need one another in the upcoming future more than ever if they want to continue to serve the public in a profitable capacity.

Today hospitals are using two primary strategies to refresh their supply of physicians. They are acquiring medical groups and hiring graduating residents directly out of residency (Colchamiro, 2012). Along with the acquisition that assists hospitals in addressing their growing need for improved primary care, physician relationships and strategies focus on acquiring specialty physician practices to offer lucrative returns and increase primary care capabilities. These specialty physicians will prepare hospitals for the future delivery models such as Accountable Care Organizations (Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, 2013).

Legislation has been passed to target the promotion of general physicians, including family physicians, internists, geriatricians, and pediatricians. It is a widely known fact that specialist receive greater compensation for their services than general practitioners. This is a leading cause for new medical residents to seek fellowships in specialized practices of medicine. The increased workload in comparison to specialist coupled with the decreased compensation per patient has all but sealed the future for general physicians. The first reaction from lawmakers to settle this problem was to draft legislation leading to the reductions in payment of specialty care to pay for the increases in the demand for general care. Opposition to these reductions in specialized care was able to successfully prevent these reductions by persuading lawmakers to fund general care as new expenditures.

One of the most polarizing physician provisions afforded in the Affordable Care Act is the formation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This group consists of 15 members responsible for submitting proposals to extend the affluence of Medicare and slow down spending growth (Resneck, 2010, p. 711). This 15-member organization includes physician, but a majority of the members are

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU representatives: health professions, economist, consumer groups, employers, insurers, and other professionals according to Dr. Resneck. Along with submitting proposals to extend Medicare and decrease its spending, IPAB will be expected to make proposals to keep Medicare’s per-capita spending growth under an inflation-based target rate. One important component of the IPAB provision is the exemption of hospitals and hospice from and IPAB scrutiny until 2020 leaving physicians to absorb a disproportionate share of any reductions. It is evident that the authors of the ACA purposely left out significant transformations of the classic fee-for-service physician payment system.

Over the past 30 years there have been many attempts at increasing physician-hospital employment, which has resulted in lack of integration, poorly structured compensation packages for physicians, financial challenges for hospitals, and regulatory complexities. In the past these attempts at integration have failed due to the lack of understanding the business models (billing, staffing, revenue) and regulatory requirements. This time around the passage of the Affordable Care Act brings more pressure for successful integration. Hospitals cannot afford to fail this time because the need to integrate and the competition for essential physicians are increased by the health care system’s overall transformation. Now it is crucial that hospitals identify, employ, and align with the right physicians or run the risk of being left behind (Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, 2013).

It is known that there will continue to be a shortage of primary care physicians in the United States. The passage of the Affordable Care Act will only accentuate this growing problem. The United States government is putting an emphasis on prevention rather than treatment, which in theory would eliminate many of the health problems facing the US, but the reality is there aren’t enough physicians to truly assess each American. There is no true solution to this conundrum. Fortunately, there is an untapped supply of health care providers that can begin to close this void.

An alternative to improve health care is to increase the utilization of existing health care providers that have near equal access to the general population as general physicians, particularly dentist.

Physicians have generally been represented by internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, and general practice with nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacist serving when needed as adjunct to primary care providers. Through this

45 unwritten chain of services dentist have been forgotten along the way. By training, dentists have the ability to recognize more than 100 systemic diseases, genetic disorders, and lifestyle problems. A few of the disease and disorders they can detect and monitor are hypertension, obesity and eating disorders, osteoporosis, diabetes, substance abuse, sleep apnea, skin and oral cancer, and salivary markers of other systemic diseases. With all of these capabilities, dentists are a crucial resource that has been over looked for years (Giddon, Swann, Donoff, & Hertzman-Miller, 2013, p. 280).

Dentistry schools nationwide have begun contemplating altering their curriculum to better equip their students to take on the demand that is rising for general practitioners. Giddon’s research found: Harvard University recently funded such a program to demonstrate that general practice dental residents can be trained to become oral physicians who can assume limited preventive primary care responsibilities. The curriculum for the ‘oral physician’ residency is significantly modified from traditional general practice general residencies, with the inclusion of rotations in the medical emergency department and the outpatient internal medicine clinic.

Now those dentists have begun training in methods similar to medical students, in the future they will become widely accepted as “oral physicians.” By assuming this limited preventative primary care responsibilities dentist will help alleviate the increasing workload that physicians will become subject to in the coming years allowing them to focus on the more taxing cases.

Today many patients have been visiting their dentists as or more often than their primary care physicians. In particular, orthodontists and pediatric dentists have exclusive access to their patients that make them an attractive option for general health integration.

Orthodontists see their patients on a monthly basis for two years plus during their formative years to verify growth is normal while pediatric dentists are capable of recognizing developmental and behavioral problems that their patients may be suffering from (Hall, 2012).

At this point it is unclear whether the involvement of dentists in preventative screening will decrease the need for primary care physicians. This is unknown because the increase of diagnosis or if in fact the increase in

The Lookout preventative diagnosis will lead to a future decline in the demand for specialist due to diseases and disorders getting addressed in their infant stages, but only time will tell.

Concerns and Solutions to the Shortage Questions have arisen about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in regards to how successful its implementation will be. Years after the ACA has been signed into law there is a growing physician shortage throughout the United States this is a valid concern that politicians have not solved. This supply and demand imbalance between primary care practitioners and now the entire United States population lays its roots in many areas.

Already low and continuingly decreasing reimbursement rates, and the salary void irrespective of longer work hours between specialist and primary care physicians can be insinuated as the primary cause of medical residence shying away from primary care and are commonly opting to specializing. To solve this shortage an immediate fix is increasing the role of nonphysician practitioners (NPPs) while the long-term solution is to incentivize medical students to begin careers in primary care instead of specializing (Jacobson & Jazowski, 2011).

To expand the role of non-practitioner physiciansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; medical professional organizations, physicians must abandon their generational reluctance toward nonpractitioner physicians to serve as primary care providers. Along with accepting NPPs as fully functional primary care providers, physicians must reevaluate how primary care is delivered. By shifting routine care to NPPs, physicians can retain their responsibility for complex patients and oversight of the newly arranged primary care system (Jacobson & Jazowski, 2011). Along with NPPs, incentivizing medical residents to pursue careers in primary care will provide long-term stability to this new health care delivery system for generations to come.

There is a disproportionate shortage of primary care and specialty physicians now and will continue in the years to come. Even without the implementation of the Affordable Care Act many projections show that there would have been an absences of the required number of physicians needed to effectively service the patient population. In Massachusetts they have been providing health care for all of its citizens since 2007.

Six years into the process Mass. is having its sixth year of primary care physician shortage. Not only are more

Kayla Carr 46 than half of all primary care practices closing their doors to new patients but over half of the physician specialties are also suffering from shortages (Kirch, Henderson, & Dill, 2012). According to the research conducted by Kirch: Whereas previous physician supply and demand projections produced by the Center (The Association of American Medical Colleges for Workforce Studies) showed a shortage of 39,600 doctors in 2015 (2), the new ACA-adjusted estimates bring the number close to 62,900, with a progressive worsening of the shortage through at least 2020â&#x20AC;Ś The total projected shortage for 2020, after full ACA implementation, the projected shortage for 2020 still be a disconcerting 64,100 physicians (5).

The government has made a point of increasing medical school sizes to include more seats. In the past eight years medical and osteopathic schools have increased their enrollment by 36 %. Unfortunately the growth of medical schools will soon outgrow the funding for first-year residents which has only marginally increased by less than 2% the last ten years.

Congress holds the key to this problem because unless they pass legislation increasing funding by at least 15 % in residency training (approximately 4,000 more physician residencies annually) there will be not only a lack of general practitioners, but also a lack of funding for graduating physicians to complete their residency before formally enter the work force as an independently practicing medical doctor (Kirch, Henderson, & Dill, 2012, p.. 440).

Conclusion The Affordable Care Act is a complex piece of legislation that will determine the fate of tens of millions Americans along with the fate of millions of health care professionals. The Affordable Care Act will dictate the specific subdivision of health care for many current and graduating professionals. Future medical student will begin to follow the trend of specializing because the workload of general physicians responsible or the health of the general population is increasing tremendously but these practitioners will continue to be compensated less per capita than specialist. The idea of working longer hours for a lower salary will not be the deciding factor for other young upcoming medical professionals.

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU Ultimately this research’s goal is to educate the population on the future of health care, Medicare, the expansion of other general practitioners roles, along with physician’s compensation and increasing workload. All the references used in the construction of this research share the common belief that the new influx of patients will leave the system out of balance.

This disproportion between general practitioners and

47 patient population has had many “quick-fix” ideas drawn up in an attempt to solve this imbalance, but the reality is this problem will not be corrected within the next decade. Only through the support of the government and a combined effort between graduate schools and current health care professionals can this problem be resolved in the decades to come .

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Greetings my name is Jamine Ifedi. I am a senior at East Carolina University. I currently major in Health Services and Management in route to medical school. I am the Director of Diversity and Inclusivity for our SGA (student government) and the president of a service brotherhood called the T.E.A.M. As an aspiring physician I found the Reconciliation Act of 2010 interesting and pertinent to my future. Thank you for the opportunity to submit my work for recognition.

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References Braun, P. (2013). The affordable care act's impact on employers. Employee Benefit Plan Review, 67(8), 9-10. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1288109022?accountid=10639 Colchamiro, E., MPA. (2012). Affordable care act upheld: Understanding what could come next. Physician Executive, 38(4), 78-80. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1282100716?accountid=10639 Davis, G. (2011). The affordable care act: Montana's second steps. Montana Business Quarterly, 49(3), 8.

Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. (2013). Physician-hospital employment: This time it's different.

Giddon, D. B., Swann, B., Donoff, R. B., & Hertzman-Miller, R. (2013). Dentists as oral physicians: The overlooked primary health care resource. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 34(4), 279-291. doi:10.1007/s10935-0130310-7 Hall, M. A. (2012). The affordable care act survives, for now. The Hastings Center Report, 42(5), 12-4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1285506662?accountid=10639 Jacobson, P. D., & Jazowski, S. A. (2011). Physicians, the affordable care act, and primary care: Disruptive change or business as usual? Journal of General Internal Medicine, 26(8), 934-937. doi:10.1007/s11606-011-1695-8 Kirch, D. G., Henderson, M. K., & Dill, M. J. (2012). Physician workforce projections in an era of health care reform.

Annual Review of Medicine, 63, 435-445. doi:10.1146/annurev-med-050310-134634 Minow, M. (2012). Affordable convergence: "reasonable interpretation" and the affordable care act. Harvard Law Review, 126(1), 117-149.

Resneck, J.,Jack S. (2010). An analysis of health system reform for dermatologists: Elements and implications of the patient protection and affordable care act. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 63(4), 706-715. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2010.07.020

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Desertion in the Confederate Army: A Disease that Crippled Dixie Daniel Franch During the Civil War, the South was significantly undermanned and lacked the industry and natural resources of the North. Disease and a scarcity of medical knowledge and treatment reduced the number of troops in both armies, but the development that began to concern the Confederacy’s leaders the most was desertion. From 1861 to 1865, around 23,000 North Carolina soldiers deserted, but about 8,000 of these men later returned to their posts.1 Confederate soldiers, who were mostly poor farmers, first began to desert after the passage of the Conscription Act of 1862. The first of two acts passed in 1862 addressing desertion, this law required men between the ages of 18 to 35 years old, except men of critical professions and other approved exemptions, to enlist in the Confederate Army for three years of service or for the remainder of the war. As cited in “Inconstant Rebels: Desertion of North Carolina Troops in the Civil War,” historian Francis B. Simkins opined that desertion was “the most disgraceful chapter in the history of the Southern War for Independence.”2 Many parts of the South, including most of eastern North Carolina and Tennessee, were under Union occupation for much of the war. The presence of Yankee invaders severely undermined morale and cut off those areas to the Confederacy. The Union Army’s use of oath swearing demoralized Confederates and allowed them to secure protection of their families and homes. Wives and sisters wrote desperate letters begging their loved ones to stop fighting and come home amidst shortages of food and other hardships.

Southern elites also reneged on their promise to look after soldiers’ families by refusing to grow more food crops instead of the more profitable cotton; furthermore, many of the rich conducted extortion of basic necessities that exacerbated already tough

1 Hugh T. Lefler and A.R. Newsome, North Carolina: The History of a Southern State, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1954), 446.

2 Richard Bardolph, “Inconstant Rebels: Desertion of North Carolina Troops in the Civil War,” North Carolina Historical Review, XLI (April 1964), 163.

economic conditions. Desertion only continued to spread throughout the Confederate Army since the Confederate high command did not take tough enough measures to punish deserters or prevent others from deserting early in the war. Appeals from family and friends at home, a want of Confederate nationalism, Union occupation of large swaths of the Confederacy, and the failure of southern elites to keep their promises all drove Confederate soldiers from North Carolina and beyond to desert.

Desertion began to appear in the Confederate Army in the first few months of the war. As cited in Blood and War at my Doorstep, a “Wanted for Desertion” posted in the Raleigh Standard on January 22, 1862 appeared for 23-year-old Thomas Pleasant Myers. Meyers left Camp Magnum in Raleigh on December 25, 1861 and was soon classified as a deserter.3 According to Brenda McKean, “A volunteer who failed to show for his medical exam and training camp was considered a deserter,” thus desertions began before conscription and continued throughout the war.4 Confederate law considered desertion as the relinquishment of military service without permission and with no intention to return. Richard Bardolph describes the many dodges committed by Confederate troops that eventually fell under the category of desertion: Sometimes deserters quit one regiment to join another. Far more common was absence without leave, involving, it was presumed, intention to return. Another widespread practice was that of straggling – falling out of line of the march, or immediately before or during battle, with intent to return when peril was past – or when a particular blackberry patch had been stripped of its fruit. Still

3 Brenda Chambers McKean, Blood and War at my Doorstep: North Carolina Civilians in the War Between the States, vol. 1, (Bloomington: Xlibris Corporation, 2011), 394.

4 Ibid.

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The Lookout another form of shirking was skulking, avoiding military service by fraud or other law-breaking: self-mutilation, malingering at the expiration of a furlough or at furloughs or exemptions; collusion with medical boards for exemption or with subordinate military officers for assignment to easy duties and pleading ignorance of the machinery of enrollment under the conscription laws.5

Many soldiers who enlisted amid the excitement during the beginning of the war in 1861 believed they could go home after they completed one year of duty.

In April 1862, the Confederate Congress passed the first of two conscription acts, which required men between the ages of 18 to 35 years old, except men of critical professions and other approved exemptions, to enlist in the Confederate Army for three years of service or for the remainder of the war. In an attempt to address fears of slave insurrections caused by the Emancipation Proclamation, since so many white Southerners were away fighting, the Confederate Congress passed a second conscription act in October 1862. An exemption included in the act that many poor whites came to abhor was called the “twenty Negro law” in which one white male was exempted from conscription for every twenty slaves on a plantation. As cited in Blood and War at my Doorstep, this excerpt of a letter to North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance from Private O. Goddin reveals the anger poor whites had against the exemption to the draft given to whites on plantations: Please pardon the liberty which a poor soldier takes in thus addressing you as when he volunteered he left a wife with four children to go fight for his country. He cheerfully made the sacrifices thinking that the Govt. would protect his family, and keep them from starvation. In this he has been disappointed for the Govt. has made a distinction between the rich man (who had something to fight for) and the poor man who fights for that which he will never have. The [Confederacy’s] exemption of the owners of 20 Negroes & the allowing of substitutes clearly proves it. Healthy and active men who have furnished substitutes are grinding the

5 Bardolph, “Inconstant Rebels,” 189.

poor by speculation while their substitutes have been discharged after a month’s service as being too old or as invalids….Now Govr. do tell me how we poor soldiers who are fighting for the rich mans Negro can support out families at $11 per month? How can the poor live? I dread to see the summer as I am fearful there will be much suffering now…6 The majority of Confederate soldiers owned no slaves, so the twenty “Negro” law became extremely unpopular across North Carolina and the Confederacy.

The large number of Confederates who avoided conscription in North Carolina reveals that efforts to encourage conscription fell largely on deaf ears.

In addition to the Conscription Acts, the Confederate Congress passed two additional laws that deeply angered southern whites: the Tax Act of 1863 and Impressment Act passed in 1863. The Tax Act of 1863 was a tithe to the government that required farmers to give one-tenth of all their produce to Confederate officials. The Impressment Act gave specific committees the right to seize livestock, slaves, provisions, and wagons for the Confederate Army and to determine the price of recompense. For many North Carolinians who had no stake in slavery, especially those who lived in the mountains, they considered these acts as infringements on their freedoms and found ways to resist.7 As cited in “Deserters and Outliers,” General Simon Bolivar Buckner observed that, “fully half of the East Tennessee and North Carolina troops from the mountain districts are not to be relied upon.”8 Loyalties of the Home Guard and militia could never be taken for granted. In a letter to his brother written from his unit in Henderson County North Carolina on June 15, 1863, J.A.W. Revis discussed the extent of desertion in the mountains: …the men is runing away an coming home nerly every day the Country is fool of them I sopose ther is somthing like ment in transel vaney I sopose that thier is 8300 men

McKean, Blood and War at my Doorstep, vol. 1, 380.

7 John G. Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963), 183.

8 Philip Gerard, “Deserters and Outliers,” Our State, February 2014, http://www.ourstate.com/desertersoutliers/ (accessed April 8, 2014).

6

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU [Transylvania County, NC] run away from the armey now I dont think that war will last mutch longer boys. I want to see you the worst good god olmity may the time soon role on when the men may return home to ther native lands ther to dwell in peace untel the the mity hand of god Coles forthem.9

51 changed. Men would sometimes feign illness as a lunatic.12 There are numerous accounts of gangs of deserters who preyed upon the civilian population in North Carolina, and they targeted the wealthy in particular. McKean gives a detailed account of some of the most well known gangs in North Carolina:

If J.A.W. Revis’s number is correct, there were 8,300 deserters living in Transylvania County by the summer of 1863. This letter also reveals the attitude favoring peace that many soldiers, especially from North Carolina, developed by this stage of the war. John G. Barrett describes ways men employed to avoid serving in the Confederate Army:

Whites and coloreds combined to form gangs intent on robbing the countryside. The Lowry gang from Robeson County stole from their wealthy neighbors and distributed it to the poor. Several gangs used Fort Hamby in Wilkesboro as their base to commit depredations. It was reported that eighty-five deserters from Wilkes and adjoining counties gathered at For Hamby.

The leaders of this gang, Wade and Lockwood, were deserters from U.S. General Stoneman’s cavalry. The Wilkesboro JournalPatriot reported these men to have the best army rifles. Deserters near Brunswick County fled to the Green Swamp in wartime. Today it is known as Soldier Bay. The Dove Swamp and the Great Dismal Swamp in the East hid both runaway slaves and men escaping conscription or those who had deserted.13

Also, fingers were cut off, skin scaled to produce bad sores, and a great variety of diseases feigned. One individual told a surgeon he had a confliction of diseases as great as any man ever had. Another complained of a very dirty affliction that he did not like to name….More than one alleged impotence, while some professed being affected periodically, like the female sex.10 The greatest concentration of pro-Union citizens was in the mountains where only 11.3 percent of people owned slaves.11 As cited in Blood and War at my Doorstep, McKean describes the incredible lengths men from the North Carolina mountains took to avoid the draft: Occasionally men worked the fields, dressed as women to fool the conscript officers. A dark-skinned man was alleged to be part Negro…. To get a medical exemption, some men would cut off a finger or two. Skin [was] scalded to produce sores, diseases feigned…Family Bible birth records were

J.A.W. Revis,“J.A.W. Revis to John M. Revis and D.W. Revis, June 15, 1863,” (Letter), Daniel W. Revis Letters, 1862-1863, State Archives of North Carolina (Raleigh, NC: 2014), http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collectio n/p15012coll8/id/1267/rec/6 (accessed March 17, 2014).

10 Barrett, The Civil War, 185.

11 McKean, Blood and War at my Doorstep, vol. 1, 363.

After examining reactions by soldiers to conscription and other laws passed by the Confederate government, it is important to understand other motivating factors that drove desertion.

One of the most powerful drivers of desertion amongst Confederate troops was the desperate appeal from home by loved ones and friends. One of the most blunt appeals for desertion is described in Charlotte E. Grimes autobiography in which she describes the change in attitude by a Confederate officer, “It was said that Capt. Tom Settle, who was a great secessionist in the beginning, told their wives if they wished the war to stop, to make their husbands desert and come home.”14 Many women wrote Confederate officials, including President Jefferson Davis himself, to plead that their

9

Ibid.

Ibid., 397.

14 Grimes-Bryan Papers (#16), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. 12 13

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husbands could stay at home. As cited in Blood and War at my Doorstep, the following letter was written

by Martha Coletrane of Randolph County to the governor of North Carolina and is a heartbreaking plea: Dear Sir this is a greate undertaking for me as i never wrote to a man of authority before [.] necessity requires it of me as we are nonslave holders in this section of the State [.]. i hope you and our legislature will look to it and have justice done to our people as well as the slaveholders [.] i can tel you the condition of my family and you can judg for your self what its condition woul be if my husban is called from home [.] we hav eight children and the oldest is not forteen years old and an old aged mother to support, which makes eleven in our family and without my husband we are a desolate and ruined family for extortion runs so hie here [.] we cannot support and clothe our family without the help of my husban [.] i hope you will look to the justice of this section of the state and i trust you will hold the rane [reins] in your own hands and not let the confederate congress have full sway over your State [.] i appeal to you to look to the white cultivators as strictly as congress has to the slaveholders and i think they men from 35 to 45 be hel[d] as reserves at hom to support ther families if the[y] are calld from home [.] it is bound to leave a thoasn [thousand]families in a starving condition in our country [.] we trust in god and look to you for some help for our poor children [.] so no more.15

increased rates of desertion around harvest times in June, July, and September.16 The shortage of food was most often mentioned in soldiers’ letters home, for rations remained at starvation levels for long lengths of time. As cited in “Inconstant Rebels,” Private Virgil Cavin wrote that near-starvation tested his determination and drove others to desert: I dont think I can stay here and Starve wee dont get half a nuff to eat….I ant agoing to stay here more than tow or three weekes I will go some way or other I cant Stay here this way. I cant Stay here and starve the way I have to do I get a pint of meal a day I cant stay here the is a croud of us a going to come home. I hate to Stay here and Starve and I hate to go to the yanks I hant got much chance the wach [they watch] us So close that wee hant no chance… [but] the average from 8 to 10 men every night the cross the lines.17 Considering the South’s lack of industry and the Union blockade, the Confederacy struggled severely to adequately feed, clothe, and arm its troops. In a letter from Cary Whitaker to his brother, he reveals that the lack of food and supplies directly caused soldiers to defect to the Union: I think the people as well as the Government ought to make extra efforts to feed and clothe the soldiers, for if our soldiers were well clothed and fed I don’t believe there would be one tenth of the desertions then. If the Yankees were fed and clothed as we are they wouldn’t have an army a month, while if our army received their treatment, we would seldom have a deserter. Though I have a pretty good character for veracity at home, my friends would hardly believe me if I were to tell them of the destitution and suffering I have seen in the army-when in the Valley of Va, the snow on the ground, I have seen soldiers with their pants worn off up to their hips, and nothing but an old pair of drawers

For many soldiers who were poor yeomen farmers, their presence at home was vital to their families’ survival.

Katherine A. Giuffre discovered through research that soldiers whose absence was more likely to affect the stability of their families were more likely to desert than those from whom the family was more independent. Giuffre also determines that soldiers who were heads of households were more likely to desert than those who were not. This is backed by the

Katherine A. Giuffre, “First in Flight: Desertion as Politics in the North Carolina Confederate Army,” Social Science History 21, no. 2 (1997), 245-263.

17 Bardolph, “Inconstant Rebels,” 175.

16

15

McKean, Blood and War at my Doorstep, vol. 1, 365.

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU on, worn out and exposing the person in many places-and still were I to go to Halifax [NC] and point out this in the most glowing colors I would hardly get a dozen pairs of pants for the very army which is now keeping the enemy from their homes and firesides…18 Civilians at home did not fare any better, and people everywhere dealt with inflation and extortion of basic goods. An example of a starving wife desperate for her husband to come home is the following letter by Mary Cooper: I have always been proud of you, and since your connection with the Confederate army I have been prouder than ever before. I would not have you do anything wrong for the world, but before God, Edward, unless you come home we must die. Last night I was aroused by little Eddie’s crying. I called, What’s the matter, Eddie? and he said, Oh, Mama, I’m so hungry. And Lucy, Edward, your darling Lucy, she never complains, but she is growing thinner and thinner, and Edward, unless you come home we must die.19 By 1863, the war had taken its toll on the spirits of most Confederate soldiers and they began to question the senseless bloodshed after the devastating battles at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. In a letter to his wife, Tar heel soldier John Futch wrote: I can only assure you we are living the worst life ever lived. Our rations are short and our duty hard. I had one mes [s] of beans and squashes but I had to pay 1 dollar for them [.] I haven’t had no money in more a month.

I am comin [g] home the first chance I can get [.] I think that this war will end before long for I think that the yankes will whip us before long.20

18 19

McKean, Blood and War at my Doorstep, vol. 1, 395.

D.H. Hill, “The Women of the Confederacy,” Addresses

at the Unveiling of the Memorial to the North Carolina Women of the Confederacy, (Raleigh: Edwards and

20

Broughton, 1914), 12-13.

Jayne E. Blair, Tragedy at Montpelier: The Untold Story of Ten Confederate Deserters from North Carolina, (Bowie: Heritage Books, 2003), 63.

53 In addition to desperate appeals from letters from home, there were other driving forces behind the desertion of Confederate troops.

One problem that plagued the Confederacy throughout the entire war was that nationalism was based off protecting one’s home and family and did not involve a great sense of loyalty to the Confederate government in Richmond. Peter S. Bearman argues that Confederate soldiers deserted because their identity as southerners was eroded by an emergent localism, nourished and organized within the Confederate army.

Bearman also notes the view of many historians that suggest rancorous battles among the elite over state rights weakened Southern nationalism.21 Governors Moore of Louisiana, Brown of Georgia, and Vance of North Carolina all resisted Confederate efforts to conscript their states’ male populations and impress supplies in varying levels.22 Governor Vance tried to muster all the adult males he could into the Home Guard and state militia to round up deserters; but unfortunately, there simply were not enough men to find and apprehend all of the deserters in the state.

Soldiers from all over the Confederacy largely reacted negatively to the idea of conscription and reflected a scorn of the Confederacy and its officials. As cited in More Damning Than Slaughter, Norm Harrold of Ashe County North Carolina bluntly told President Jefferson Davis, “And now bastard President of a political abortion, farewell. ‘Scalp hunter,’ relic, pole, and chivalrous Confederates in crime, good-bye. Except it be in the army of the Union, you will not again see this conscript.”23 The Union used oath swearing to allow Confederate civilians and soldiers held in captivity to effectively abandon the Confederate cause. Oath swearing was widespread in the western states of Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and northern Alabama. Union occupation of large parts of the Confederacy weakened the connection civilians felt to the Confederacy and caused loved ones to entreat soldiers to come home. Mark A. Weitz explains

Peter S. Bearman, “Desertion as Localism: Army Unit Solidarity and Group Norms in the U.S. Civil War,” Social Forces 70, no. 2 (1991), 321-342.

22 Mark A. Weitz, More Damning Than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005), 112.

23 Ibid., 108.

21

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The Lookout

the reason that many Confederate civilians and soldiers swore an oath of allegiance to the Union: People unwilling to wait for the outcome, or looking at their situation and concluding that the rule of war in their little corner of the Confederacy had prevailed, took the final step to formalize the Confederacy’s defeat. Once again the Confederate notion of nationalism, the protection of home and fireside, proved to be a double-edged sword, as soldiers and civilians looked not to the sustenance of the Confederacy’s armies or the preservation of the capital as evidence that the Confederacy continued to live, but rather to the safety of home and family.24 In addition to oath swearing, the Confederate government failed to establish and enforce a uniform punishment for desertion. From December 1861 until 1865, the Confederacy executed only 229 men and 204 were killed by firing squad while 25 were hanged.

North Carolinians made up more than half of the executions. One example of execution is the five Confederate soldiers who, according to James A. Lowry, “deserted our army and joined the Yankees” outside of New Bern in 1864.25 Both national and state Confederate officials, including Robert E. Lee, offered pardons to deserters who returned to their units, but this did little in stemming the tide of desertion.

defying the local peace officers.”27 Before the Home Guard came into existence, the state militia was primarily responsible for defending North Carolinians.

The North Carolina militia, however, was poorly trained and could not adequately distribute food nor protect civilians from Union raids. As cited in Blood and War at my Doorstep, evidence of the ineptitude of many militia groups is revealed in a woman’s journal when she described, “…when Burnside’s army approached New Bern, the militia took the cavalry’s horses and fled to Kinston without stopping whereby forty horses rode to their death.”28 The militia was limited to mostly old men and disabled soldiers, and conscription made it extremely difficult to fill their ranks. An excerpt from a letter reveals that the militia was outnumbered in Henderson County North Carolina, “…thare is more dezerters than thare is malishey hear but some of them has gone angive up to go back.”29 Not only was the militia ill-trained and illequipped, there is evidence of mistreatment of both loyal civilians and relatives of deserters. Missions of hunting deserters often involved personal disputes and led to violence. McKean describes the militia’s treatment of a deserter gang leader: Colonel William Owens, a deserter,…in late 1862 became a leader of a gang bent on vengeance to secesh families in Moore and Randolph Counties. Governor Vance was told that a militia force would go to the outlier’s homes frequently and gang-rape the wives and daughters...Owens and his band had been known to storm the jails and release prisoners. Two rogues that hunted down deserters were Peter Garner and Adam Brewer. Garner captured two temporary deserters and shot them in the back. Garner was later murdered in retaliation for all the crimes he had committed. Militia officer Colonel Alfred Pike was accused of torturing the wife of William Owens….The leader of a militia company admitted to Settle that, I

With the ever-increasing number of deserters in the state, North Carolina officials had to dedicate men to round up the deserters. These men became known as the Home Guard. There were three main regions of the state where the Home Guards encountered the most resistance from deserters: the counties of Washington, Bertie, and others Down East; Randolph, Moore, and Chatham counties in the piedmont; and most of the upper mountain counties, including Madison County’s Shelton Laurel Valley.26 As cited in Blood and War at my Doorstep, McKean quotes the historian Yates who discovered that, “More than 800 deserters were reported pillaging farmers of Randolph County and

Ibid.

Ibid., 883.

29 Sarepta Revis, “Letter: Sarepta Revis to Daniel W. Revis, June 7, 1863,” (Letter), Daniel W. Revis Letters, 18621863, State Archives of North Carolina, (Raleigh, NC: 2014), http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p15012coll 8/id/1232 (accessed March 17, 2014).

27 28

Ibid., 121.

James Addison Lowrie Collection (#983), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. 26 McKean, Blood and War at my Doorstep, vol. 2, 884.

24 25

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slaped her jaws-tied her thumbs together behind her back & suspended her with a cord tied to her two thumbs thus fastened behind her to a limb so that her toes could just touch the ground-& [later] put her thumbs under the corner of a fence.30

As editor of the largest newspaper in the state, the North Carolina Standard, Holden argued that the state should negotiate a swift peace and begin reconstruction.

Holden also called for changes in conscription and tax laws, which attracted support from the poor, nonslaveholding classes.33 Bardolph discusses the development of the peace movement in North Carolina:

Owens was later hung by a lynch mob after being captured and placed in the Pittsboro jail during the last month of the war. Furthermore, the militia and home guard were sometimes unreliable and stole from loyal citizens. As cited in The Civil War, an officer of the Fifty-Sixth North Carolina Infantry Regiment admitted there was “indiscriminate plunder of property belonging to the deserter’s families, (such as wearing apparel and watches) and depredations on property of good citizens.”31 McKean also notes chilling actions of the militia and deserters terrifying the civilian population: Mrs. Unus Riddle, a Tory, was robbed, whipped, and hung until almost dead, by secesh troops because she refused to tell of the hiding places. Sally Moore, age seventy, was whipped. The mother of an infant was tied to a tree. Her infant was put in the cabin doorway while the soldiers told her the baby would be left to die in the snow unless she would reveal her husband’s whereabouts. In Yadkin County, the deaths of two magistrates, murdered by deserters, caused other magistrates to fear for their lives.

People complained that deserters had more friends than the militia and could get timely information of every movement to arrest them…32

The growing sentiment for trying negotiation rather than protracting a hopeless war made a plural thrust upon the man in the ranks. It not only won adherents in the army. Many soldiers who were not themselves captivated by its melancholy logic were demoralized by it because they felt that it was foolish for the troops to sacrifice themselves for a cause the country seemed ready to abandon. The triumph of defeatism at home mocked all the suffering that the army had endured from the beginning…34 William Holden derided the Confederate government, for “it had lost its original character and had been perverted to despotic purposes against her own rights and the rights and liberties of her citizens.”35 Many criticized Holden because he seemed overly eager to reach peace with the Union and accused him of being motivated by political ambitions. As cited in “Inconstant Rebels,” a North Carolina private described Holden’s role in desertions among Tar Heel troops, “There has been a good many N. Carolinians shot in this army for Desertion old traitor Holden is Responsible for the most of it….”36 The Fayetteville Observer criticized those who attended peace meetings by accusing many of desertion:

Although the militia and Home Guard were largely ineffective and committed atrocities that angered many civilians, the presence of peace feelings in North Carolina severely undermined support for the war.

We have reason to believe that in at least one case a meeting was in great part composed of the immediate relations and friends of a number of deserters who are prowling about the woods in that neighborhood, and that its main object was to countenance the dastardly conduct of those deserters. Again we have heard that the prime movers of some of the

After mid-1863, many Confederate and state officials, along with citizens and soldiers in the field, were determined that the main cause of desertion by North Carolina troops was the peace movement, led by W.W. Holden, and the melancholy it created at home.

Barrett, The Civil War, 188.

Bardolph, “Inconstant Rebels,” 183.

35 Ibid., 183.

36 Ibid., 184.

33

McKean, Blood and War at my Doorstep, vol. 2, 886.

31 Barrett, The Civil War, 194.

32 McKean, Blood and War at my Doorstep, vol. 2, 889.

30

34

56

The Lookout meetings are men between 40 and 45, who are thus muddying the waters for the purpose of devising some mode of screening themselves from obedience to their country’s call.37

Efforts made by North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Richmond Pearson struck at the constitutionality of the conscription laws as well as the means used to enforce the laws. This excerpt from a recent blog posting reveals the effect Chief Justice Pearson had on desertion: Increasingly, North Carolinians turned to the courts to combat the perceived draconian actions of Confederate conscription officials within the state. They found a willing ally in the North Carolina Supreme Court, and especially Chief Justice Richmond Pearson of Yadkin County. Chief Justice Pearson saw the court as the protector of individual freedoms within the state, and as a result, he issued opinions going against the actions of the Confederate conscription officials. These opinions reversed the conscription of citizens, and ordered the release of men already in the custody of the Confederate Army.38 North Carolina Governor Vance engaged in an intense argument with the Confederate government in Richmond over North Carolina’s courts and Vance defended his soldier’s contributions to the Confederate war effort. For these reasons, the peace movement convinced thousands of North Carolina troops and civilians to lose their belief in the Confederate cause.

Another impetus for desertion was the fact that Southern elites reneged on their promise to take care of soldiers’ families. Many people who were greedy and

37

Fayetteville Observer, “Fayetteville Observer: Newspaper

article on NC politics and the peace movement, 17 Aug. 1863,” (Newspaper article), Newspaper Collection. State Archives of North Carolina, (Raleigh, NC: 2014), http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collectio n/p15012coll8/id/12996/rec/7 (accessed March 15, 2014).

38 “First Wednesdays – “It is important to have uniformity in the decisions of our judges…” North Carolina Civil War 150, November 6, 2013, http://civilwar150nc.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/first -wednesdays-it-is-important-to-have-uniformity-in-thedecisions-of-our-judges/ (accessed April 15, 2014).

had money committed extortion by selling basic necessities at extremely high prices, which drove many families into near-starvation. Some observers found proof in 1862 that the Southern planters broke their promise to the largely yeoman, non-slaveholding class by the planters’ recalcitrant refusal to plant more food crops instead of the more profitable cotton. Mark A. Weitz describes the anger most whites felt towards the Confederacy’s elites: “They had gone to war and ‘risked death for the altar of their country’ while an entire class of men used their wealth to hire substitutes and remain at home.”39 The conscription laws, impressment, and tax-in-kind acts also supported the idea that the war was a “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.” Weitz went claims that, “To hear that the elites not only withheld assistance but actually took advantage of the hardships and shortages of the war undermined and ultimately severed any sense of loyalty to the Confederacy, its cause, and its army.”40 In a society that was deeply stratified, the success of the South depended on a harmonious relationship between poor yeomen farmers and planters; but much to the chagrin of the Confederacy, that did not materialize.

In conclusion, the causes of desertion of Confederate troops during the Civil War are complex and interrelated. Desperate letters from home had the greatest impact on persuading men to abandon their units. The weak existence of any sense of Confederate nationalism prevented all Confederate soldiers from feeling a strong sense of devotion to the Confederate government in Richmond. Union occupation of large parts of the Confederacy and the use of oath swearing also struck a blow to the hearts and minds of many civilians who were under Union control for much of the war. Furthermore, the existence of a strong peace movement in North Carolina led by the vocal W.W. Holden weakened troop and civilian morale and caused many desertions among Tar Heel troops. The problem of desertion tormented the Confederacy’s leaders from the very beginning of the war and proved to be one nail in the coffin that caused the South to lose the Civil War.

39 40

Weitz, More Damning Than Slaughter, 126.

Ibid., 284-285.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: My name is Daniel Franch and I am a senior double majoring in History and History Education and minoring in German. My favorite type of writing is rhetorical and research writing because I love history and am fascinated by how influential people have used rhetoric to powerfully articulate their views. I like how writing enables me to express my thoughts clearly and concisely on a book or issue I care about. As a consultant at the University Writing Center, I enjoy helping students with all stages of the writing process, especially various citation formats such as APA and Chicago since I learn something new every day.

Bibliography PRIMARY

Fayetteville Observer. “Fayetteville Observer: Newspaper article on NC politics and the peace movement, 17 Aug. 1863.” Newspaper article. Newspaper Collection. State Archives of North Carolina. Raleigh, NC. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15012coll8/id/12996/rec/7 (accessed March 15, 2014).

Grimes-Bryan Papers (#16). East Carolina Manuscript Collection. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University.

Greenville, North Carolina, USA. Hill, D.H., “The Women of the Confederacy,” Addresses at the Unveiling of the Memorial to the North Carolina Women of the Confederacy. Raleigh: Edwards and Broughton, 1914, 12-13.

James Addison Lowrie Collection (#983), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. Revis, J.A.W. “J.A.W. Revis to John M. Revis and D.W. Revis, June 15, 1863.” Letter. Daniel W. Revis Letters, 1862-1863. State Archives of North Carolina. Raleigh, NC. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15012coll8/id/1267/rec/6 (accessed March 17, 2014).

Revis, Sarepta. “Letter: Sarepta Revis to Daniel W. Revis, June 7, 1863.” Letter. Daniel W. Revis Letters, 18621863. State Archives of North Carolina. Raleigh, NC. http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p15012coll8/id/1232 (accessed March 17, 2014).

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SECONDARY Bardolph, Richard. "Inconstant Rebels: Desertion of North Carolina Troops in the Civil War." North Carolina Historical Review. XLI (April, 1964): 163–189.

Barrett, John G. The Civil War in North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963.

Bearman, Peter S. “Desertion as Localism: Army Unit Solidarity and Group Norms in the U.S. Civil War.” Social Forces 70, no. 2 (1991): 321-342.

Blair, Jayne E. Tragedy at Montpelier: The Untold Story of Ten Confederate Deserters from North Carolina . Bowie: Heritage Books, 2003.

“First Wednesdays – ‘It is important to have uniformity in the decisions of our judges…’” North Carolina Civil War 150, November 6, 2013. http://civilwar150nc.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/first-wednesdays-it-isimportant-to-have-uniformity-in-the-decisions-of-our-judges/ (accessed March 15, 2014).

Gerard, Philip. “Deserters and Outliers.” Our State. February 2014. http://www.ourstate.com/deserters-outliers/ (accessed April 8, 2014).

Giuffre, Katherine A. “First in Flight: Desertion as Politics in the North Carolina Confederate Army.” Social Science History 21, no. 2 (1997): 245-263.

Lefler, Hugh T., and A.R. Newsome. North Carolina: The History of a Southern State. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1954. 446.

McKean, Brenda C. Blood and War at my Doorstep: North Carolina Civilians in the War Between the States . 2 vols.

Bloomington: Xlibris Corporation, 2011.

Weitz, Mark A. More Damning Than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

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The Freedom to Marry Kristi Wood When it comes to the topic of gay rights, most people will readily agree that it is one of the most prevalent issues in today’s society. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of legalizing same-sex marriage. Currently, Latin-American countries are showing the most progression towards giving gay couples the same rights as heterosexual couples.

Countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay are leading the pathway to allowing same-sex marriage and pushing laws that protect against violent discrimination.

Although Latin America is revolutionizing the movement of gay marriage there are still obstacles that stand in the way of achieving equality. As in most countries, there is often a clash between religious groups and the government when trying to pass new laws; and also a struggle to enforce protection for those who are gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual. Many people have spoken out on this worldwide issue, offering their opinion on some of the reasons why Latin America has been so open-minded on the legalization of gay marriage.

Omar Encarnación, a Professor of Political Studies at Bard College, offers insight on how the high courts in Latin America have been overlooked in the success of gay rights activism and also discusses the role jurisprudence is playing in the decision-making process for new laws. He opens his argument on thoughts of how the United States lags behind in legislation of same-sex marriage by stating how “it is striking that the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to find a constitutional right to same-sex marriage” (Encarnación). In other words he is reflecting on how Latin America has deemed it constitutional for a gay couple to be married just as a straight couple would yet, the United States, a country that advocates equality, still denies this basic human right to its citizens. In the United States we have major religious ties with our government while “marriage in Latin America is strictly a civil institution” (Encarnación). In his first reason as to why Latin American courts are pro-gay marriage, Encarnación is basically saying that their high courts do not let religious views have a stance in the law making process.

His second distinguishing factor is how many Latin American countries have written new constitutions and modified them to accommodate gay rights “while the

United States Constitution remains remarkably faithful to its 18th century foundations” (Encarnación). He states this showing how the United States laws have not advanced with society while Latin America is striving to create proper equality for all of its citizens.

The last point of the author’s argument to the success of the high courts leads to the topic of international jurisprudence. Encarnación writes, “…Latin American high courts have in recent years indulged in “trans-national legalism…” by borrowing legal precedents from other countries…” In other words the author is saying that the courts in Latin America utilize former legal cases from different countries that eventually help in appointing new laws.

He supports this claim with the 2012 ruling in Mexico that legalized same-sex marriage. Mexico’s Supreme Court used the American court case Loving vs. Virginia in their decision to make gay marriage legal because “the Mexican ruling noted, “was relevant because the…disadvantages…homosexuals have suffered create an analogy with the discrimination that interracial couples endured in another era” (Encarnación). With this example, the author contends that through use of international jurisprudence the courts from Latin America actually took the opportunity to learn from past legal battles in hopes of not letting history repeat itself.

While Encarnación contends the high courts are an important factor to Latin America’s movement towards gay rights, Javier Corrales gives credit to many different factors that have been involved to create or hinder equality to gay couples throughout Latin America. Corrales is a Professor of Political Science at Amherst College who believes that there are numerous influences involved in the expansion of gay rights. The first key factor he explains is how “gay rights in Latin America have expanded most in countries whose incomes are highest…yet income has been neither sufficient or necessary” (Corrales). What Corrales is saying is that although countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Mexico have higher incomes it does not necessarily imply a direct correlation to advocacy on gay rights (Corrales). He supports this by using Ecuador as an example of a

60 country that has made same-sex unions legal yet they are not among the wealthiest.

Corrales explains another important factor involved is the barrier created by religious ties to political parties. He notes “…but in the politics of gay rights, the separation of church and party is just as vital” (Corrales). He believes that countries where church and state are kept separate have a much higher chance of receiving support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (L.G.B.T.) rights. In the last of his argument Corrales asserts that if there were more openly gay politicians and political leaders the push for gay rights would dramatically increase. He makes the comment, “The more they align themselves with the progressive social movements, and less with religious groups, the more they can be counted on to bring about pro-gay change” (Corrales). He believes that true support for same-sex marriage will immerse once parties evolve with the L.G.B.T. movement and become a part of it through promoting more openly gay members.

Although Corrales argues on the different factors involved in pushing gay rights, Lauren Young, a rhetoric and technical communications major at James Madison University, reflects on the issue of why the United States is so far behind on the road to legalize gay marriage. Such as Omar Encarnación, Young similarly contends that one reason Latin America is ahead on the legalization of gay marriage is that they have continuously modified their constitution while the United States has not. The main difference she found between the United States and Latin America is that “marriage in Latin America is only concerned with the legality of a civil union, no matter if a heterosexual or a homosexual couple is involved” (Young). Her point is that Latin American countries view marriage as a legal institution, while the United States has notoriously incorporated its religious standpoint in the legislation of marriage. Also similar to Javier Corrales’s opinion, Young believes that “change in Latin America seems to be based heavily on L.G.B.T. activists joining forces with national politicians.” In making this comment she is pointing out that if advocates for gay rights can side with higher-ranking political leaders, equality for gay rights will receive a giant push in the United States.

The Lookout Marianne Mollmann, Director of Programs at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City, argues that violence against transgender, lesbian or gay individuals is still very present in Latin America even though it is the leader in passing laws for same-sex marriage. She contends that one of the major reasons violence towards homosexuals is a problem is because of “…those who most visibly challenge gender norms: transgender men and women…who do not easily fit into a gendered box” (Mollmann). Her point is that hate-crimes occur to those who do not “blend in” with society and are specifically targeted by people who are against gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals. She offers support on anti-gay violence in Latin America with a statistic from “The main L.G.B.T. organization in Peru…that every five days a lesbian, gay or transgender person is killed in that country” (Mollmann). Her evidence shows there is an on-going problem with violence against the gay community and legislation must be made in order to prevent it and protect those who are victimized. Mollmann’s final standpoint is that “…we must attack the larger fallacy at stake: the notion that only those who look, speak, talk, think, and live like the majority deserve equal rights and protection.” She believes that the first step for cruelty towards the L.G.B.T. community to end involves seeing and treating them as equals amongst the rest of society.

In my own views on the subject of legalizing gay marriage, I whole-heartedly agree with each author’s opinion. Javier Corrales’s statement, “…but in the politics of gay rights, the separation of church and party is just as vital” I believe stands very true. One of the most important reasons Latin America has been so progressive on gay rights is because many nations separate religion and politics. If policy makers created laws according to true human rights and not on how they think society “should be” based on their religious views, the gay community would significantly benefit.

Another major standpoint I support is Omar Encarnación’s opinion that the United States “remains remarkably faithful to its 18th century foundations” (Encarnación). If our nation truly advocates equality for all it should be represented through our

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU constitution so that every citizen no matter their sexuality or gender-identification is given the same opportunities as everyone else.

The relentless battle on legalizing gay marriage is one that will see many more years of debate and even more resistance. Violence and murder against people who are different from the majority is one of the most

61 heinous problems society faces today. Educating those who are ignorant of the obstacles gay couples face and the rights they are denied, simply due to their sexual preference, can potentially lead to a better understanding for the need of equality. Latin America is already leading the way for gay rights, which hopefully will set an example for the rest of world.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Hi my name is Kristi Wood, I am a senior here at ECU but will return to be a super senior next year. I am originally from Washington, North Carolina, which is a small town only 20 minutes away from Greenville. I am a Communications major with a completed minor in Art and am about to start a Hispanic Studies minor. I have my sights set on graduating in the spring of 2016. After having an amazing study abroad experience, I have a hope of traveling beyond the United States and seeing what the world has to offer after I graduate.

References Corrales, Javier. “The Usual Forces, with Surprising Results.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.

Encarnación, G. Omar. “High Courts Have Taken a Stand.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.

Mollmann, Marianne. “Violence Still Prevalent Despite Progress on LGBTI Rights in Latin America.” The Huffington Post. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.

Young, Lauren. "America is Losing Race on Same-sex Marriage." UWIRE Text 3 Feb. 2014: 1. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.

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Quality of Care in Public and Private Geriatrics Christina Cramer ABSTRACT: Quality of healthcare in geriatrics has become an issue discussed recently due to the population of the elderly growing quickly. Differences in public and private geriatric healthcare create questions of which has better quality of care. Private facilities appear to have better quality care with nicer amenities and a higher price for residents. Private geriatric care can be for-profit or non-profit; both are owned by investors or large corporate companies. For-profit and non-profit facilities have similar care but different profit objectives. Public facilities owned by the government provide an equal amount of care, but have differences that could suggest poorer quality. Geriatric quality of care has been assessed and measured in a number of ways to determine which facilities provide the higher quality of care.

As the baby boomers are making their way into old age, their healthcare needs are becoming much more prevalent. Because this population is so large, geriatric care is growing. With this growth occurring rapidly, quality of care for geriatrics is becoming a bigger issue.

Geriatric care is offered both through private facilities and public facilities. The purpose of this paper is to prove or disprove that quality of care in private geriatrics is superior to quality of care in public geriatrics.

age that determines if the care is geriatric. Instead, cases are considered to be placed under geriatric medicine with the disease or problem the patient is getting care for. Some cases may include immobility, memory loss, cognitive difficulties, and diminished hearing and vision. Geriatric care is given in a variety of ways. Acute geriatric care can be given in hospitals or physicianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s offices. Long term care for the elderly is given by home-health agencies with home visits or, primarily, the setting of a nursing home.

Methods of Research

What is Quality Care in Relation to Geriatric Healthcare?

My main method of research for this thesis is the East Carolina University databases through Joyner and Laupus Library. I searched the topic and found plenty of useful sources. Many of these sources are articles from nursing or medical journals. I also used Google Scholar as a method of research. These scholarly search engines have directed me to information regarding geriatric quality of care. Deciding what research to use required a lot of time and consideration. The journal articles were lengthy and key points were deep in the research. The information I have decided to use as support in this research paper has been carefully selected to help prove or disprove my thesis statement.

What is Geriatrics and Where is Geriatric Care Given?

Geriatrics can be defined as the healthcare that specializes in care for the elderly. Geriatric medicine focuses on preventing and treating diseases and disabilities found in older adults. There is no particular

Linda Nazarko provides a list of what quality care should be in her article in the journal â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nursing Management.â&#x20AC;? This list describes what should be present for quality care in geriatrics. It includes encouragement, empowerment, stressing rehab, having expertise, and meeting physical, social, and spiritual needs of the patient. Treating the patient with care and respect is the first step in giving the patient quality care.

If the care provider is not doing so, the patient will feel as if the care being provided is not up to standards.

The provider of the care must be willing to spend time and create a relationship with the patient. The staff must work together to organize schedules that will allow them to build relationships with the patients. The patients comfort is very important in their opinion of good quality care (Nazarko, 1999). Thomas J. Hendrix explains quality with a more concrete outlook.

Quality should be accessed through structures, processes, and outcome measures.

64

The Lookout The structural measures are those associated with the facility in which care occurs.

Structure includes the material resources (equipment and buildings), human resources (number and type of personnel), and the organizational structure (peer review).

Process measures include what is actually done while providing care. Outcome measures are the effect of the care on the patient (Hendrix, 2000).

Quality care can be assessed and implemented through different outlooks. Quality could be looked at through a technical standpoint using numbers and studies, or it can be accessed through the satisfaction and well-being of the patients. Both ways produce an accurate and understandable view on quality.

What are similarities and differences between public and private nursing home care?

Privately owned nursing homes are usually for-profit companies. They are owned mostly by investors or large corporate companies. Publicly owned nursing homes are usually owned and operated by the government. There are also non-profit privately owned nursing homes that are owned and operated by companies who work to provide care rather than the intention to make a profit. In our country as a whole, 68% of nursing homes are for-profit, while only 6% are owned by the government, the rest are non-profit facilities. Whether private or public ownership, a nursing home must be certified to accept Medicare and Medicaid. Although this certification is voluntary for the facility, about 95% of private and public facilities are certified. Nursing residents are more likely to pay with Medicare and Medicaid than to privately pay for their services (kkf. org).

Importance of Quality High quality of healthcare is crucial to the well-being of our people. Quality of care in the elderly population should be treated equally as important as to the rest of the healthcare population. Quality is what makes or breaks a healthcare facility. The patient’s life and wellbeing should always be top priority. With this being said, quality is measured by the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS), this center is part of the Department of Health and Human

Services (DHHS). The official website of the CQuIPS states their objectives: o

o

o

o

Conducts and supports user-driven research on patient safety and health care quality measurement, reporting, and improvement.

Develops and disseminates reports and information on health care quality measurement, reporting, and improvement.

Collaborates with stakeholders across the health care system to implement evidencebased practices, accelerating and amplifying improvements in quality and safety for patients.

Assesses our own practices to ensure continuous learning and improvement for the Center and its members (ahrq.gov).

High quality care in geriatrics is determined under the standards of the DHHS. As long as a facility is adhering to national standards and keeping the patients satisfied, quality needs of the facility should be met.

Staff numbers are critical in supplying quality care. If there is enough staff to care for the patients and those staff members are passionate about their work, satisfaction in patients should be high.

Quality of healthcare in geriatrics can be poor for many reasons. One of these reasons is due to the patient’s state of health and their vulnerability. Patients in nursing homes often suffer dementia, memory loss, and confusion due to their old age. They also can become immobile and rely heavily on the medical staff.

Unfortunately, there have been many cases of abuse and neglect in geriatric healthcare. Abuse in the geriatric community can be exerted in a physical or emotional form. Melissa Muehlbaur, RN and author of Elder Abuse and Neglect, describes what kind of physical abuse can take place in nursing home facilities. “Abuse may include failure to implement a plan of care or provide treatment, unauthorized use of physical or chemical restraints, and use of medication or isolation for punishment or staff convenience.” Each of these types of physical abuse will affect a patient’s well-being, and their life could be at risk. Emotional abuse occurs due to a lack of empathy and understanding from the caregiver to the patient. A caregiver who is verbally abusive to a patient can cause them depression and dissatisfaction. Another way a patient can be abused is receiving care from an under-certified caregiver. The care-giver may be unintentionally abusing the patient by

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU giving them incorrect care or care that is not up to standards. If the care is not given to the patient correctly the patient could risk diminished health.

Emotional health can be at risk if a caregiver is not personable enough as well. Physical and emotional abuse are equally critical to the health of nursing home patients.

Poor sanitation in nursing homes also results in poor quality. Sanitation in any healthcare facility is an important factor towards the health of the patients. But because the age of the patients in nursing homes is higher, the immune systems of the patients are lower.

Poor sanitation can cause a spread of illness and possibly fatalities throughout the facility. Sampson Law Firm provides some examples of sanitation mishaps on their website: failure to sanitize any medical equipment properly, failure to sanitize restrooms and bathing areas, failure to switch out soiled bedding and clothing, and failure to isolate and quarantine any patients who may have a contagious illness (sfltrial.com.) If these needs are not being met in a nursing home and the patient is living with these types of conditions, there is a lack of quality care in the facility. Poor sanitation could possibly be due to low staffing levels.

Staffing levels in nursing homes affect their quality of care tremendously. Nursing homes that are understaffed are known to have an increased number of patients who are more likely to be sick (Harrington, 2012). Without a high enough number of staff, compromises have to be made. These compromises result in patients not receiving the attention or care that their health requires. A facility that is understaffed is also more likely to have deficiencies.

Miscommunications about who is taking care of who can cause the patients unnecessary health issues. An example of a miscommunication is giving an improper dosage to a patient. If one staff member is assigned to take care of multiple people at a time, it is very possible that a prescription dosage could be missed.

Understaffing may save the facility money, but the consequences of poor quality are not worth the money saved. For-profit nursing homes seem to be the biggest culprit of understaffing because of their focus on making a profit (Hendrix, 2000).

Measured Quality in Private and Public Nursing Homes With the support of quality reports, our country is able to see who is providing the highest quality of care.

65 There have been many statistical analyses and studies that show that private for-profit nursing home facilities have been sacrificing quality of care for a greater profit.

Government owned nursing facilities have shown higher reports of quality and satisfaction than privately owned for-profit nursing homes. Many claim that low numbers of staff are the main cause for the lack of quality in the for-profit facilities.

Authors Charlene Harrington and James H. Swan provided the first study to focus particularly on the top 10 for-profit nursing home chains in the country from 2008. These consisted of Extendicare Health Services, Inc. , Genesis HealthCare Corporation, Golden Living, HCR Manor Care, Kindred Healthcare, Life Care Centers of America, National Health Care Corporation, SavaSeniorCare LLC, Skilled HealthCare LLC, and Sun Health Care Group, Inc. Overall the staff had a lower amount of hours than the non-profit organizations and government owned homes. These organizations also seemed to have the sicker patients and a minimal number of staffing hours. This number was 30% lower than the number of the non-profit and government facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total hours. The number of staff also affects the number of deficiencies. Deficiencies are any incidents or problems that are reported. Some examples of deficiencies include infection control, accidental environments, poor sanitation, resident mistreatment, and unnecessary drugs. This study showed that these 10 for-profit facilities had 36% more deficiencies than non-profit and government facilities (Fernandez, 2011).

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) did a study to research if private investment firms and private nursing home facilities had a greater number of deficiencies than non-profit homes. They found that the private homes did in fact have a higher number of deficiencies as well as a higher number of serious deficiencies. Serious deficiencies are incidents or problems that cause harm to residents or staff. A deficiency could be as simple as a harmless medication error, while a serious deficiency could be an adverse drug event that causes death or harm to the patient.

This study focused on nurse staffing. Like in Harringtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s study, this found that lower levels of staffing had a correlation to a higher number of deficiencies and poorer quality of care. The different levels of nurse staffing also showed to affect quality.

Registered Nurses (RNs) have higher qualification than Certified Nurses (CNs) or Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) due to their higher education levels.

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CNs and LPNs are only required to obtain licenses and cannot provide as much care as a RN. A higher number of RNs over CNs and LPNs also shows an increase in quality. For-profit homes have a lower ration of RNs. Staff salaries and other staff related costs can account for almost half of a nursing home’s operating costs.

The GAO’s study also focuses highly on the spending natures of nursing homes. For-profit nursing homes seem to spend less on staffing. With less money spent on staff, higher quality care could be forgone.

For-profit companies rely heavily on the reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies. If the facility keeps their costs below expected levels, they will often get reimbursed enough to make a profit. For-profit facilities may also try to improve the attractiveness of their facility in hopes to bring in a higher paying patient population.

With more money spent on renovations and less on the care of the patient, the quality of care could drop (GAO, 2011).

Another study was developed to show the correlation between efficiency and quality in nursing homes nationwide. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has a technique in measuring efficiency used to come up with a score based on inputs and outputs.

This technique uses a technical approach towards efficiency and economy of scale, known as the “variable to scale model” (DeLellis & Ozcan, 2013). They studied the efficiency based on size of the nursing home, for-profit status, affiliation to a chain, quality of care, and performance. The DEA calculated a number of scores to determine how efficiency and quality are related. They found that non-profit and government owned facilities had a higher efficiency score than forprofit homes. “The results indirectly confirm that higher efficiency does not have to be attained by sacrificing high quality” (DeLellis & Ozcan, 2013).

Quality of care and efficiency together will produce a strong nursing home with few deficiencies and a more satisfied patient population.

Improving Quality in Nursing Homes Because deficiencies are so common in nursing homes in our country, the government and other agencies have decided that something must be done to improve quality of care. The New York Times reported on America’s nursing homes and states that the inspector general of the DHHS, Daniel Levinson, found the percentage of homes that reported deficiencies were as

followed: 94% for-profit, 88% non-profit, and 91% government operated (Pear, 2008). With for-profit facilities being the highest in reported deficiencies, it is evident that they have the poorest quality of care out of the three. The other two percentages in non-profit and government owned facilities are also very high, showing that quality of care in most nursing homes in our country is limited. Improvement in quality of care is necessary for the well-being of our geriatric community.

Stadnyk, Lauckner, and Clarke wrote on the topic of improving quality of care and what methods and ideas work. These three authors state that the three main focuses in the United States are quality improvement, effectiveness, and the culture of care.

Quality improvement is a broad overlook on the whole concept. They state that quality improvement should be done with assessments and different ways to measure the quality in the facility. Different types of programs can be implemented in facilities to stress the importance of quality care. Reports seemed to show success in improving quality after assessments and programs have been completed. Effectiveness of treatment is determined by what actually works to improve a patient’s well-being. Effectiveness can be improved with simple studies and observations that show an increase in improvement of the patient’s health. A simple example is offering a snack and some extra assistance to a patient; this has sometimes shown more effectiveness than supplements and medications.

If more measures are taken to improve effectiveness of treatment and quality of care, then satisfaction levels could be improved. Culture of care focuses more so on the happiness of the resident. Models have been done to focus on the riddance of unsatisfying feelings like boredom and loneliness. Many of these areas of improvement can be improved by better attitudes of the staff (Stadnyk, et. al, 2011). With better staff empowerment the satisfaction of patients will be higher.

As discussed previously, nurse staffing is essential in the quality of geriatric care. With the combination of teamwork, communication, and nursing leadership, quality of care could be increased. A study was implemented by researchers Vogelmeier and ScottCawiezell to observe and evaluate the activity of nursing staff in different nursing homes. Based on medication error rates, the study showed that the nursing homes with lower medication error rates showed better communication between staff as well as a leadership figure. The nursing home that performed the best with

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU nursing leadership, communication, and teamwork was a large non-profit nursing home, supporting the earlier discussion of non-profit homes having a higher quality of care than for-profit homes (Vogelmeier & ScottCawiezell, 2011).

The government can also take action in improving the quality in healthcare. Better inspections and policies can force nursing homes to abide and perform better in many aspects of quality care. Other types of programs have been developed by health agencies and groups to try to improve quality. Programs like RAND and ACOVE are examples. RAND is a quality-of-care assessment system for the geriatric community.

ACOVE stands for Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders. This project was implemented to build awareness for the vulnerable geriatric community and develop a tool to assess the quality of care (RAND. org, 2004). Improvements in quality are necessary for the well-being of the elderly. Programs and changes in staffing attitudes will work to improve the overall quality.

Summary & Discussion With the geriatric community growing rapidly as the baby boomers age, the quality of geriatric care has become much more of a problem. Abuse and neglect, poor sanitation, and low staffing levels have all been factors in low quality nursing home facilities. Research and studies have shown that quality of care in public and private nursing homes vary. Government owned facilities and non-profit nursing homes have displayed better quality care than privately owned corporate nursing homes. Investor and corporate owned nursing homes have been sacrificing high quality care for a larger profit. Studies have shown that these nursing homes have a higher number of deficiencies and lower staffing levels. Public and non-profit facilities focus more on the care of the patients since profit is not the goal. They have higher staffing levels, which can decrease number of deficiencies. Quality of private, forprofit, geriatric care in nursing homes is inferior to the quality of public and non-profit geriatric care.

There are many misconceptions from an outsiderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective on quality of care in private

67 nursing homes. One may think that because a facility appears to be nicer externally and more expensive, quality of care would be better. For-profit private nursing facilities have been spending more money on the exterior of their building to attract higher paying residents. People would assume that the higher the price you pay for care, the better the care would be. But that is not that case when it comes to private and public geriatric care. Public and non-profit nursing homes will provide care at a lower cost with less deficiencies and higher staffing levels. The higher staffing levels will benefit a patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health. Efforts of improvement are being made to try to diminish poor quality care in all nursing facilities. These efforts will focus to improve quality of life and care for the patient and the facility overall. Healthcare qualityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s importance is stressed by the DHHS and poor quality healthcare should not be tolerated. With efforts to improve quality, there is hope for equal quality care in both private and public geriatric healthcare.

Conclusion The thesis that quality of care in private geriatrics is superior to quality of care in public geriatrics has been disproved. Private geriatrics can be split into for-profit and non-profit and public geriatrics includes government owned facilities. For-profit geriatrics has shown poorer quality care than non-profit and government owned geriatric facilities. Support from a number of studies and journal articles help to disprove the thesis. Studies focus on deficiencies, nursing staffing, and efficiency. These factors have been evaluated and support that the privately owned, forprofit facilities show poorer quality of care. Further research should be done to examine the quality of healthcare in home-health agencies and to expand on the quality of care in non-profit facilities. Quality of care in geriatrics is being evaluated to determine where improvements are needed to prepare facilities for the rising population of the elderly community. Quality of healthcare should be equal among all facilities, and this evidence could help take steps towards improvement and equality.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: My name is Christina Cramer and I am from Cary, NC. I am a senior in the Health Services Management program in the College of Allied Health. I have always had an interest in working with geriatric healthcare and began to understand how serious quality is in the healthcare industry when I started the program. I hope to one day work as a healthcare administrator in a nursing facility with goals to provide the best quality care possible.

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References Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS).(n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://www.ahrq. gov/cpi/centers/cquips/index.html Developing quality of care indicators for the vulnerable elderly: The ACOVE project. RB-4545-1. (2004). The RAND Corporation.rand.org. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB4545 Overview of nursing facility capacity, financing, and ownership in the United States in 2011. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.(n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://kff. org/medicaid/factsheet/overview-of-nursing-facility-capacity-financing-and-ownership-in-the-united-states-in-2011/ Private investment homes sometimes differed from others in deficiencies, staffing, and financial. performance.

(2011, July). United States Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-571, Highlights. Unsanitary Environment. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.slftrial.com/practice-areas/nursing-homemalpractice/nursing-home-negligence/unsanitary-environment/ DeLellis, N. O. , Ozcan, Y. A. (2013, June). Quality outcomes among efficient and inefficient nursing homes: A national study. Health Care Management Review, 38(2), 156-165.

Fernandez, E. (2011, November 29). Low staffing and poor quality of care at nation's for-profit nursing homes.

University of California, San Francisco. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://www. ucsf. edu/news/2011/11/11037/low-staffing-and-poor-quality-care-nations-profit-nursing-homes Harrington, C. and Swan, J (2003). Nursing home staffing, turnover, and case mix. Medical Care Research and Review, 60(3), 366-392.

Hendrix, T. J. (2000). Optimal nursing home staffing. (Order No. 9982338, The Pennsylvania State University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 94-94 p. Retrieved from http://search.proquest. com.jproxy.lib.ecu. edu/docview/304614413?accountid=10639.(304614413).

Muehlbauer, M., R. N., M. S. N., & Crane, P., PhD, MSN,W. H. N. P., R. N. C. (2006). Elder abuse and neglect. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services, 44(11), 3-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/225532005?accountid=10639 Nazarko, L. (1999). Quality of care in nursing homes. Nursing Management, 5(8), 17-20. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/236962444/citation/142170CAF1572D22 F0E/33?accountid=10639 Pear, R. (2008, September 30). Violations Reported at 94% of Nursing Homes. The New York Times, p.

A20.

Stadnyk, R. L. , Lauckner, H. , & Clarke, B. (2011). Improving quality of care in nursing homes: What works?.

Canadian Medical Association Journal, 183(11), 1238-1239. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://dx. doi. org/10. 1503/cmaj. 110789 Vogelsmeier, A. , & Scott-Cawiezell, J. (2011). Achieving quality improvement in the nursing home: Influence of nursing leadership on communication and teamwork. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 26(3), 236242. Retrieved November 10, 2013, from http://ovidsp. tx. ovid. com. jproxy. lib.ecu.edu/sp3.10.0b/ovidweb.cgi?QS2=434f4e1a73d37e8cf61ba976142606496729b41b393f34e6 7afb6da2baae956c87b2428cc5f547ca50dcec4e231ba6b590b68dc23d0125a5b6c173e16b8c7da4886 9a5aae1a9e435801ad16034a173ee0a9048f876099b3618b556a

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Food Preference Behaviors of Leaf-cutter Ants in Gamboa, Panama Kari Carr ABSTRACT: Leaf-cutter ants of Central America cut and harvest portions of plants (i.e. petals and leaves) and use the plant cuttings as a source of nutrients for the saprophytic basidiomycete fungus that the ants cultivate as a food source for ant larvae. The research team conducted two experiments involving leaf-cutter ant food preferences in Gamboa, Panama. The first experiment examined how leaf cutter ants responded to fruit near their established trails. The second experiment was designed to investigate preferences between cecropia leaves and mango leaves. The leaves were placed over the five trails so that the ants could not avoid them. It was observed that leaf-cutters were willing to create new trails to the fruit in order to both eat the fruit and harvest pieces to return to the fungus. It also appeared that the leaf-cutter ants preferred fruit with higher starch and pectin content (such as bananas with peels over peeled mangoes). In experiment two, it was observed that leaf-cutter ants preferred cecropia leaves to mango leaves and this preference was statistically significant. A recent publication of research conducted in Gamboa (Kooij et al. 2014) suggests that the two different experiments were likely conducted on two different leaf-cutter ant species—and possibly two different genera—based on food specialization. Kooij et al. explains that the leaf-cutter ant niche and accompanying food source vary and that each variation correlates with a distinct species. Further research should determine what plant components are preferred and whether the groups represent two different species.

Introduction Leaf-cutter ants have a symbiotic relationship with a saprophytic basidiomycete fungus in which the ants cultivate the fungus (Saverschek et al. 2010). There are 40 species of leaf-cutter ants, and it is probable that the fungus cultivated by all leaf-cutter ant species is a genetic polymorph of the fungus L. gonglyophorus. A genetic polymorph is the term used to describe the event in which a species has experienced enough small genetic changes that different phenotypes arise within the same species, but the organisms are still able to interbreed to form fertile offspring—thus the two or more polymorphs are still the same species (Kooij et al.

2014). Adult leaf-cutter ants obtain most of their nutrients from sap, but the fungus is the sole food source for larvae (Saverschek et al. 2010). The cultivated fungus is not characteristic of saprophytic basidiomycetes in that the leaf-cutter’s fungus lacks the ability to digest complex organic materials such as cell walls. Specific enzymes are found in the ant fecal matter, which act to break down plant cellulose into a form that the fungus can digest (Abril and Bucher 2004). The ants chew the plant pieces into a pulp and then defecate on the mixture (Ronhede, Boomsma, and Rosendahl 2003). Enzymes in the fecal matter begin breaking down cells walls with the highest enzymatic

activity is towards pectin (Erthal et al. 2008). The enzymes found in the leaf-cutter fecal matter additionally assist the fungus in converting the starch into usable glucose (Bacci et al. 2013). Saverschek et al.’s research (2010) suggests that leaf-cutter ants learn how plants affect the fungus and use the acquired information to decide to continue or to cease collection of a plant for the fungus. Negative effects include toxin exposure that negatively affects fungus growth (Saverschek et al. 2010).

Plant selection by the ants involves both biological factors such as a plant’s nutrition content and the fungus’ ability to absorb those nutrients, and social factors such as the leaf-cutter ants’ ability to make observations and alter their behavior in response.

Our experiments were aimed at elucidating the biological and social factors associated with food collection. Kooij et al. (2014) examined and compared overall foraging characteristics across six species of leafcutter ants, whereas our experiment focused on food choice in one or possibly two species where the ants did not have to travel far for the food source since the food was on or near established ant trails.

While designing the experiment, observations of leaf-cutter ants at site one showed the ants were primarily focused on obtaining petal and leaf segments

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU from the Tabebuia rosea tree. The single tree was standing alone and the trails were in an open grassy area and all the visible ants were using one trail to the tree and returning to the nest with a petal or leaf fragment.

However, some ants were on a peeled mango near the trail that led from the nest to the tree. Some leaf-cutter ants were actively cutting pieces of the fruit and carrying the fragments toward the nest where the fungus resides, while some leaf-cutter ants remained on the fruit for a longer duration of time (perhaps consuming the fruit for their own nutritional benefit).

Food preference studies show that pectin and starch affect harvesting decisions (Bacci et al. 2013, Erthal et al. 2008), but fruit collection studies of leaf-cutter ants are not commonly performed to the researchers’ knowledge and thus this surprising observation was used as a starting point to our experiment.

The objectives of the first portion of the study were to investigate whether the ants would collect fruit when available and to investigate the effect of fruit starch content on fruit collection. Mangoes and bananas both contain starch—the banana is higher in starch content—but there are other nutritional differences such as sugar, protein, and mineral content (Condé Nast 2014, Condé Nast 2014). The peel of both mangoes and bananas contain pectin, but the banana peel is higher in pectin than the mango peel (Srivastava and Malviya 2011). Leaf-cutter ant fecal matter shows a high level of enzymatic activity targeting pectin during plant digestion (Erthal et al. 2008).

Mangoes and bananas contain other nutritional differences, but our research did not specifically address those differences.

At site two, the marina, a set of five trails belonging to the same nest were observed in which the ants were harvesting only leaf fragments from multiple trees, including cecropia leaves. The objective of the second portion of the study was to better understand leaf preference when given the choice between cecropia leaves and mango leaves. Cecropia leaves are high in starch content and the cecropia plant is capable of producing both glycogen and starch (Bischo et al.

2013). Mango leaves contain phenylpropanoids, which are chemical deterrents toward herbivores and are toxic to leaf-cutter ants (da Silva et al. 2012). We predicted that the ants would avoid collecting them. Cecropia leaves do not contain such toxins, and thus do not pose a threat to leaf cutter ants. Our literature review did not includethe elements that are toxic to ants in the peels of bananas or mangoes. We examined different food types

71 at each site, such as fruit and leaves, and therefore the selection pressures for each food type may be different.

The chemical components of the foods are different or are at different concentrations, i.e. both leaves and fruit have starch content but the fruit has more starch, and only the fruit peel has pectin (Srivastava and Malviya 2011). The data would perhaps be generalizable since one of the leaves tested and one of the fruits tested each had higher starch content than the second fruit or leaf, but the two discrete experiments only allow us to examine pectin as a selection factor in the fruit experiment. Also, some of the identifying factors of the leaf-cutter ant species are food type specialization and niche partitioning such as in the canopy, on the forest floor, or in open grasses (Kooij et al. 2014). The separate experiments were, therefore, likely conducted on two discrete species of leaf-cutter ants, due to the fact that that the ants on site one collected both petals and leaves from one tree in a sunlit area whereas the ants on site two collected leaves from a variety of trees and were mostly in a shaded area with a multitude of trees. Different species may have different selection pressures acting on food selection.

The specific hypotheses we sought to investigate with our experiments are as follows: 



Hypothesis 1 (H1): Ants prefer to forage on food items that are near their trails. o H1 Prediction 1: Ants will completely dismantle fruit (defined as no fruit remaining or, in the case of the mango, only the seed remaining) close to the trail before the fruit placed farther from the trail. o H1 prediction 2: Distance will be a greater influence on total harvesting time than fruit type.

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Ants have a preference for cecropia leaves over mango leaves. o H2 prediction 1: Ants will cut and collect cecropia leaf pieces more often than the ants will cut and collect mango leaf pieces. o H2 prediction 2: Ants will avoid mango leaves the majority of the time and will cut cecropia leaves most of the time.

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Materials and Methods

Results

Mango fruit and leaves were collected from a mango tree proximal to site one. Bananas were collected from a tree close to site one and Cecropia sp. leaves were collected near site two, but not from a tree the ants were actively collecting from. The fruit was harvested between one and two days prior to experimentation and the leaves were harvested the first day of experimentation. The research team wore latex gloves to handle all fruit and leaves to insure that hand oils would not affect the scent of the fruit and thus skew the results. Two trails were selected for the experiment.

The first trail was several inches across and no grass grew along this trail. The second trail was much thinner (approximately 1.5-2 in) and green grass blades were scattered along the second trail. Leaf-cutter ants were observed cutting grass blades at the trail edges and end (the end was the point where the trail length stopped of the second trail). The observations suggest that Trail 2 was under construction and thus was a newer trail than Trail 1.

The foraging preferences of the ants did not seem to be influenced by the distance from the trail to the fruit. At the newer trail, the leaf-cutters found all the fruit within 20 minutes being placed on the ground, regardless of the distance from the trail. There were no ants on Trail 1 when the fruit was placed on the ground. We noted the presence of what we termed “scavenger leaf-cutters,” at Trail 2’s end, and these ants were about 1.5-2 times the size of the ants that were actively cutting grass blades. At the trail end, most ants were cutting and harvesting grass blades, but a few larger ants were walking several inches to several feet away from the trail. It was unclear what the function of this behavior was, but these ants were the first to find the fruits. We referred to these ants as “scavengers” because they were the first to find the fruit. Whether these ants were actually scavenging for possible food sources, or filling some other leaf-cutter social role requires further investigation.

Peeled mangoes were placed 0.5 m, 1 m, and 2 m from Trail 1 in order to examine how far the leaf-cutter ants were willing to travel to collect fruit. An unpeeled banana was placed 0.5 m (the same distance as mango 1 with a foot between the mango and banana) from the trail to investigate whether the leaf-cutters have a preference between bananas and mangoes. At Trail 2, peeled mangoes were placed 0.5 m, 1 m, and 2 m from the trail. An unpeeled mango was placed 0.5 m from trail (to see if the peeling affected how quickly the ants would go to a mango), and an unpeeled banana at 0.5 m from Trail 2 (as was done at Trail 1).

At site two, a portion of a cecropia leaf (approximately the same size as the mango leaf) and a mango leaf were laid over each of the five trails—all five trails had different densities of ants. The leaves were collected near the site, but did not come from trees from which the ants were actively cutting leaves.

Observations of leaf-cutter behavior at site one took place over a period of four days, and observations at site two occurred over a period of three days.

It was intended for trial two to have a second day of observations (making the experiment duration four days), but rain on July 11, 2014 affected the second set of observations. Also, the team handled the leaves without gloves on day three, the first day of trial two, which possibly affected the ant behavior toward the leaves.

The fruit was dismantled faster at Trail 1 than Trail 2 even though no ants were present when the fruit experiment began. However, it took the ants more time to find the fruit at the older trail than at the newer trail.

Some ants were observed carrying pieces of both banana and mango in their mandibles toward the nest, but some ants appeared to be consuming the fruit for themselves as they were observed cutting fruit pieces with their mandibles and remaining on the fruit as opposed to going back to the nest with the fruit cutting. There did not seem to be a preference for peeled versus non-peeled mango among the leaf-cutter ants. However, the ants did form additional trails in order to get to pieces of fruit. At both trails, the bananas were the first to be dismantled completely— the mangos still had flesh after all pieces of the bananas had been harvested. At site one, we had unpeeled mangos at Trail 1 and Trail 2, which could have altered ant behavior since the fruit peels and flesh have differing nutrition components.

At site two, the ants walked on and remained on mango leaves less often than they walked on and atop cecropia leaves on the first day. On both days, less than a dozen ants were observed cutting cecropia leaves. On day one, we observed approximately five ants cutting one mango leaf, and no ants cutting mango leaves on day two. However, the rest of the ants stayed on the established ant trail. Only a few ants stopped to cut cecropia leaves at each trail. Ants which already had leaf

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU pieces in their mandibles treated the leaves as obstacles and simply walked over or around both the mango and the cecropia leaves. On day three of observations, when the second trial began, some of the ants at trail five worked together to physically move the cecropia leaf from the ant path. After the leaf was removed, some ants were observed cutting and collecting from the

73 cecropia leaf before moving back in line on the trail.

Site 2 maintained a constant flow of foot and vehicular traffic and we witnessed a truck run directly over trails four and five on day two, which resulted in ant fatality.

The observations on the trails after the two trials are summarized in the following tables.

Table 1. Observations recorded on day two, after Trial 1 was complete.

Table 2. Observations recorded on day three, after Trial 2 was complete.

Leaf-cutter ants selected and cut cecropia leaves in 8 out of 10 trials, and mango leaves were cut in only 2 out of 10 trials. A Fisherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exact test with a two-tailed

Cecropia Leaf Mango Leaf Total

P-value was conducted to determine if the selection preference for cecropia leaves over mango leaves is statistically significant (the occurrences are nonrandom).

Leaf Choice Statistical Data Cut Uncut 8 2 2 8 10 10

Total 10 10 20

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The P-value was found to be 0.023, which is <.05, showing that the preference for cecropia over mango leaves is statistically significant.

Discussion Site one ants collected fruit cuttings for the fungus. If the fruit harms the fungus or lacks usable nutrients, this fruit-harvesting behavior could, after time, become an example of learning consistent with Saverschek et al.’s evidence (2010) for trial and error learning in these ants. However, further experiments would have to be performed to establish learning in this case. The correspondence between the nutrients available in the fruit and those needed by the fungus suggest that the fungus can in fact obtain required nutrients from the fruit, aided by the digestive enzymes provided by the ants (Bacci et al. 20013). This raises the question as to why leaf-cutters collect from fallen fruit, but do not harvest fruit from trees. Fruit ripeness may play a role in the ants’ ability to cut and harvest treed fruit.

At both Trail 1 and Trail 2, the bananas were completely dismantled before the mangoes. This could be due to the high starch content of the bananas, the different pectin content of the peels, presence of toxins in peels and fruit flesh, other nutrients, or a combination of these factors; further exploration is needed to interpret the observed possible preference of bananas (“possible preference” because the sample size was not large enough to provide adequate statistical power with which to test the hypothesis). It would also be interesting to investigate the percentage of the fruit consumed directly by the leaf-cutters, and the percentage used in fungus cultivation, in order to better understand individual versus colony needs and how those needs affect ant behavior. If a majority of the fruit is collected for the fungus, it would suggest that colony goals (i.e. fungus cultivation) take priority over individual needs (or that ants eat from multiple sources throughout process of collection so as to not interfere with the colony collection goals). If a majority of ants consume the fruit directly, it would suggest that individual needs occasionally trump the colony needs.

The individual need to satisfy energetic requirements may actually benefit the colony if energized foragers are more efficient than foragers lacking energy/nutrition, resulting in an increase in collective colony reproductive output. Colony survival depends on the welfare of the workforce, and an ant’s “decision” to feed may rely on the ant’s individual needs and its perception of food availability.

The leaf preference portion of the experiment suggests that the decision to collect leaves is not automatic and may depend on undetermined environmental and social factors that affect the state of the workers encountering the leaf. More trials with perhaps a larger variety of leaves (varying starch, pectin, cellulose, and toxin levels) are needed to further explore leaf-cutter ant leaf preference. The phenylpropanoids in the mango leaves may only deter certain leaf-cutter species and thus needs further investigation. Since the sample sizes of the leaf choice and fruit choice experiments were both small, the data from the two experiments is not sufficient to determine the role starch plays in food selection. Also, the two fruits differ in more respects than just starch content—toxin presence or absence, carbohydrates, sugar, pectin, etc.— making it difficult to determine which component or component combination has the greater influence on leaf-cutter ant food preference (as well as selection pressures acting on fungus growth—nutrition—or ant collection ability—absence of toxic compounds).

Limited time and sample size minimized the amount of data the team was able to collect and thus restricted the experimental results and conclusions.

Summary of Research to Date The data do not seem to support the hypothesis that if mangoes are placed at varying lengths away from the trail, the ants will find and dismantle the closest fruit prior to the furthest fruit. This could indicate that if the reward—nutrition content—is high, then the ants are willing to expend more energy to obtain the food, particularly if nourished foragers result in an increase in collective colony reproductive output. The data do however support the prediction that fruit near a more established and traveled trail will be dismantled by the ants more quickly than fruit near a newly constructed trail. Further investigation is needed to explore why this occurs—ant numbers, the number of ants possibly “scavenging,” and demographic components of trail occupants such as caste, age size are potential influences on the fruit dismantling rapidity of different trails. The experimental data support the prediction that if given the choice between starchy fruit (banana) and nonstarchy fruit (mango), the leaf-cutters will prefer the starchy fruit, which correlates with findings of Bacci et al. (2013). However, the pectin levels in the peel, among other differences in fruit composition, could also play a role in choice. This hypothesis could be investigated with a controlled experiment much like the

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU experiment conducted by Bacci et al., where the efficiency of metabolic breakdown of multiple common compounds found in plants by ant fecal enzymes into a form the fungus can utilize was measured (2013). In addition, toxins, minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients could affect food preference, and these could be tested using the same method where enzymes from fecal matter were extracted and placed on compounds such as glucose near pieces of fungus in order to examine how well the fungus can utilize selected pieces of fruit.

An assay of leaf-cutter nutrition needs would be required in order to determine benefits of direct consumption of particular fruits are beneficial to the ants. The assay data could be compared to the enzyme experiment in order to elucidate the relationship between individual and colony nutrition need as a factor in the decision to ingest or collect food particles.

The data support the hypothesis that due to the presence of toxins, mango leaves will be less often preferred to cecropia leaves, and these data are statistically significant. Additional trials are needed to account for experimenter error, however. The prediction that leaf-cutter ants will completely avoid cutting mango leaves is false, as two mango leaves were cut.

Attempting to answer these research questions has led to more questions. The experiments conducted by the research team provide only a general impression of the relationship between food type/nutrition and leafcutter selection. More specific experiments with larger sample sizes and more trials are critical to better understand this relationship. Below is an outline of the intended plans of the research team for future investigation of leaf-cutter and food selection behavior, provided sufficient time and funds.

Future Directions The first priority in future endeavors will be to verify the identity of the leaf-cutter ant species with an entomologist, since forage behavior varies among species (Kooij et al. 2014).

In order to investigate the correlation of nutrition content and leaf-cutter food selection, chemical components and amounts of those components in bananas, mangoes, and cecropia and mango leaves (i.e. starch content, cellulose, endophyte levels, and pectin) will need to be identified. After this initial step, it will be necessary to investigate which component has the greatest impact, or if the components act in a

75 combinatorial fashion that in turn affects leaf-cutter ant food selection, using an ant nutritional needs assay and fungal digestibility of the various nutrition components to determine how individual and colony needs contribute to the decision to consume or collect food sources (nutritional needs may vary from caste to caste in ant social system, and thus should be taken into consideration when conducting nutritional needs assays).

More fruit trials are necessary to elucidate how starch and other components affect food selection and preferenceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;approximately 40 or 50 trials in order to determine statistical significance. The trials will involve placing unpeeled bananas and unpeeled mangoes equidistant from more newly constructed trails and older trails, and each trial will last until all the fruits have been dismantled or three full 24-hour days.

Statistical significance will then be determined by conducting a two-tailed t-test. Forty or 50 more leaf trials will also be conducted in order to support previously collected data. However, different leaf types with different concentrations of phenylpropanoids will be used in order to elucidate the effect these compounds have on food selection. Then a two-tailed t-test for each leaf combination will be conducted in order to determine statistical significance.

In addition to food preference, we would like to investigate niche partitioning among leaf-cutter ants by conducting observations on leaf-cutter ants harvesting fallen fruit versus fruit in trees and investigate the degree to which fruit ripeness, susceptibility to predators, and/or niche partitioning factor into this collection discrepancy. We would then use the information gathered from the collected aforementioned data to investigate both leaf and fruit choice as a component of Saverschek et al.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s learning curve (2010)â&#x20AC;&#x201D;for example, do the leaf-cutter ants stop harvesting from particular leaves or fruits after a specific duration of time? The chemical component analyses like that of Bacci et al. (2013) would also elucidate the combinatorial effects of ant ability to observe that the fungus is not growing and/or not digesting food sources and the extent of these negative fungal responses in order for the ants to learn to cease collection of the food in question.

In addition to the biological components that affect food preference and selection it is of interest to investigate the social factors that affect food selection (or the combination of social and biological components). This would include how ants signal to

76 other ants when after it is “learned” that a food source is not benefitting the fungus (and thus not benefitting the ants) and the amount of time it takes to “teach” the rest of the colony to cease collection of this food type.

Other signals that would be investigated are the signals produced after a food source has been located and which ants look for/find the food—do the “scavenger” ants which were larger than the active cutters specifically look for food off trails and signal? We would also explore other possible roles these off-trail ants may possibly play in the colony, and the specific ant caste(s) that produce specific signals.

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Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without my research team: Kara Cuddapah, senior biology and environmental engineering double major, and Danielle Branum, senior biology major. I would also like to thank Dr. Susan McRae and Dr. Kyle Summers for their guidance during this project.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: My name is Kari Carr and I am a senior biology and anthropology double major. I am a member of the Honors College as well as the National Service Sorority, Gamma Sigma Sigma.

This past summer I had the opportunity to take part in East Carolina Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Terrestrial Field Ecology study abroad program in Gamboa, Panama for two weeks. While in Gamboa, I was a member of a three person team which designed and carried out a research project regarding leaf-cutter ant food selection behaviors.

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References Abril, A. B. and Bucher, E. H. (2004). Nutritional sources of the fungus cultured by leaf-cutting ants. Applied Soil Ecology, Volume 26, Issue 3, 243-247.

Bacci Jr., M., Bueno, O. C., Rodrigues, A., Pagnocca, F., Fernando C., Somera, A. F., Silva, A. (2013). A metabolic pathway assembled by enzyme selection may support herbivory of leaf-cutter ants on plant starch. Journal of Insect Physiology, Volume 59, Issue 5, 525-531.

Bishof, S., Umhang, M., Eicke, S., Streb, S., Qi, W., & Zeeman, S. C. (2013). Cecropia peltata accumulates starch or soluble glycogen by differentially regulating starch biosynthetic genes. Plant Cell, Volume 25, Issue 4, 1400-1415.

Condé Nast, Nutrition Facts: Bananas, raw, Self Nutrition Data, 2014.

Condé Nast, Nutrition Facts: Mangoes, raw, Self Nutrition Data, 2014.

Da Silva, R. R., da Câmara, C. A. G., Almeida, A. V., & Ramos, C. S. (2012). Biotic and abiotic stress- induced phenylpropanoids in leaves of the mango (Mangifera indica L., Anacardiaceae). Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society, Volume 23, Issue 2, 206-211.

Erthal Jr., M., Silva, C. P., Cooper, R. M., & Samuels, R. I. (2009). Hydrolytic enzymes of leaf-cutting fungi.

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Volume 152, Issue 1, 54-59.

Kooij, P. W., Liberti, J., Giampoudakis, K., Schiøtt, M., & Boomsma J. J. (2014). Differences in Forage-Acquisition and Fungal Enzyme Activity Contribute to Niche Segregation in Panamanian Leaf-Cutting Ants. PLoS ONE, Volume 9, Issue 4, e94284.

Rønhede, S., Boomsma, J. J., & Rosendahl, S. (2004). Fungal enzymes transferred by leaf cutting ants in their fungus gardens. Mycological Research, Volume 108, Issue 1, 101-106.

Saverschek, N., Herz, H., Wagner, M., & Roces, F. (2010). Avoiding plants unsuitable for the symbiotic fungus: learning and long-term memory in leaf-cutting ants. Animal Behaviour, Volume 79, Issue 3, 689-698.

Srivastava, P. & Malviya, R. (2011). Sources of pectin, extraction and its applications in pharmaceutical industry −An overview. Indian Journal of Natural Products and Resources, Volume 2, Issue 1, 10-18.

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Deciphering the Use of Native American Mascots in Sports: The American Indian Debate Melody Ballard On February 13, 1937, the National Football League (NFL) approved the transfer of the Boston Redskins to Washington, D.C. This marked the beginning of the Washington Redskins legacy. In the seventy-seven years since that day, the Washington Redskins have won three Super Bowls and two NFL championship games.

Additionally, the Redskins were the first team to have an official marching band with a fight song, “Hail to the Redskins” (“Official Site”). Apart from all of their history, the team’s name and symbol evoke strong opinions among Americans pertaining to their perceived unethical nature. The Washington Redskins is only one example. Many sports teams have faced criticism due to their use of various Native American mascots. On one hand, rights activists and Native Americans have fought against the use of American Indian mascots and team names because they find them offensive and degrading. On the other hand, the Washington Redskins football team’s owner, Dan Snyder, and fans of various other accused teams express their desire to preserve the team names they find virtuous and honorable. Aptly analyzing this wellknown disagreement requires a discussion of its most important facets, the emotional and psychological effects of Native American mascots, and team mascot opinion polls using various Indian and non-Indian populations.

In regards to the American Indian sports controversy, scholars and scientists alike argue that negative stereotyping detrimentally affects a culture by infiltrating it with “everything from low self-esteem to violence victimization and high suicide rates among Indian children” (Stapleton 38). Poor treatment of Native Americans is an issue scholars discuss frequently, specifically pointing to the Washington Redskins’ team name. Other scholars, such as Lee Sigelman, Dr. Dennis Tibbetts, and Evelyn Buntz, regard this concept of negative stereotyping as a serious issue in Native American communities. In her article, published in the Sociology of Sport Journal, Sigelman explains that “others recognize that racial stereotyping per se, whether ‘positive’ or ‘negative,’ is harmful, and scoff at the idea these team names ‘honor’ Native

Americans, reserving special fire for a team name as blatant as ‘Redskins’” (319). The Society of Indian Psychologists, of which Dr. Tibbetts is a member, addressed the issue of negative stereotypes by releasing a statement in 1999 endorsing retirement of all Native American sports team mascots and personalities due to their negative psychological effects (Sigelman 38).

Buntz suggests “socio-psychological concerns lie at the core of the mascot issue” (Stapleton 38). The psychological effects of Native American mascots on Indian and non-Indian children was studied over the course of 18 months by law scientist Dr. Robert Ward.

He concluded the use of these mascots “plants a psychological seed amongst children of other cultures whereas, it is permissible to make fun of… and to be under the assumption that the Native People are inferior” (Stapleton 41). Dr. Ward goes on to explain how this effect on non-Native Americans unfavorably impacts the future success of Native Americans in society by limiting their abilities to function as an active member (Stapleton 41). Overall, Dr. Ward draws the conclusion that the use of Native American mascots leads to psychological disturbances among all children of every race, and that these psychological issues present a particular problem among American Indian populations. Another major proponent of this movement away from Native American team mascots is Dr. Teresa LaFromboise, who works as a counseling psychology associate professor and chair of Native American Studies at Stanford University. She points out the dehumanizing effects related to stereotyping, urging that this type of abuse “can lead to serious psychological disturbance such as depression and low self-esteem” (Stapleton 39). Clearly, various psychologists and sociologists have concerns about the negative impacts of negative stereotyping on the Native American community.

With all of these opinions and assessments of the danger presented by stereotyping, one might wonder if the large amount of concern and angst warrants action and if these attitudes toward this controversy touch on a trend of racism toward the American Indians. These questions can be answered through statistical analysis of

80 the American Indian community as a whole. Dr. Stapleton references Dr. LaFromboise’s comment confirming that the suicide rates among Native American adults are three times greater and among American Indian children suicide rates are five times greater than that of the general population (Stapleton 39). Chilling statistics such as these appear among studies reporting violent crime victimization in American Indian communities. “The 1999 Department of Justice report on American Indians and Crime,” as stated in Dr. Stapleton’s book, “indicates that American Indians experience per capita rates of violence at more than twice the rate of the general population” (39). Although these statistics appear somewhat dated, the overall Bureau of Justice Statistics Profile, compiled from 1992 to 2002 and published in 2004, shows that “American Indians experienced a per capita rate of violence twice that of the U.S. resident population” (United States iv). In light of this data, Native Americans prove more likely to suffer as victims of violent crimes perpetrated by members of another race; therefore, from known facts about bullying, evidently, individuals exposed to violence may exhibit symptoms of psychological distress, severe depression, and potentially suicide. Considering all of this, it is possible to validate a connection between the use of Native American mascots and the statistic proof of sociopsychological abuse among American Indians, and many scholars find this occurrence astounding and rather conclusive. Lawrence Baca, an American Indian rights activist, spoke about a question often asked about the Redskin controversy: “Why concern ourselves with sports mascots when Indian education is the lowest in the nation, when the poverty and unemployment rate among Indians is among the highest in the country?” (Stapleton 45). Baca responds to these questions by simply stating “because they are connected” (Stapleton 45). Lawrence Baca draws a direct correlation, resembling many other proponents of this cause, between the social issues of the Native American people and sports mascots like the Redskins.

Supporters of the eradication of Native American mascots use statistics in their efforts to show a connection between the stereotypical sports icons and the Native American’s dwindling quality of life.

Socio-psychology, a science greatly based on logic, behavior, and understanding of thought, proves vital to the discussion of Native American mascots and their impacts. Some scholars, highlighted in the previous paragraphs, do not see any connection between the emotional and social distress of the American Indian

The Lookout population and the use of Native American mascots in sports culture whatsoever; furthermore, these scholars are convinced that changing the mascots would take honor and pride away from the Native American community. Bruce Stapleton quotes a respondent from an Indian website who holds culture and self-worth highly but finds no correlation with mascots: “If we put as much time and money into helping people find their own culture and acquire self-worth, they may not worry about what they are called. The mascot thing is a waste of time” (73). This opinion differs significantly from the earlier attitudes related to the inappropriate nature of Indian mascot use. Nancy Bear, the Kickapoo Indian chairwoman, spoke up about this controversy. She drew attention to the Kickapoo Nation School’s mascot, the Warriors, “saying it is the prerogative of the 150 children who attend that school to use an Indian mascot if they choose” (Stapleton 72). This development suggests that Native American children will choose the use of a mascot that represents themselves rather than a detached image, unrelated to the American Indian culture. Finally, the House of Representatives from the state with the largest percentage of Indian population encouraged the use of the Native American team names from high school teams to professional leagues (Stapleton 74). The legally accredited body regarded that the names “reflect the ancient history, perseverance and pride that sustain Native American cultures and people in this land” (Stapleton 74). Considering all of the points made in this discussion, the effects or lack of effects of Indian team names and mascots on the American Indian psyche is an argument with a substantial amount of support on either side, suggesting this issue requires more research from a psychological standpoint.

Assessing the Native American mascot controversy from an angle that opposes the psychological viewpoint proves vital to the subject as a whole; therefore, opinion polls with significant statistic material related to the controversy emphasize key aspects of the American Indian dispute. A major issue with statistics, when speaking about polling, is that many polls draw from different populations without knowing, and the reliability of these sources comes into question due to their lack of information about their origin. These problems aside, opinion polls answer the major question asked by various commentators in this discussion: Do these team names offend a sizable group of people? Many Native American and rights activist groups draw attention to polls that survey large Indian populations. A poll in Dr. Stapleton’s book compares

A Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU the responses of “avid Washington fans” versus those of “Indian-related websites” concluding that 72 percent of respondents from the Native American group favor the idea of the Washington Redskins changing their name while 96 percent of Redskins fans oppose the name change (Stapleton 63). This poll, although taken from two highly specific populations, helps to outline a divide among Redskin supporters and Native American activists. An Associated Press-GfK poll taken earlier in 2013 stated “79 percent opposed changing the [Washington Redskins] team’s name while 11 percent were in favor” (Antle). This poll gives the idea that a large group of people finds the term “redskin” inoffensive, and therefore, its respondents condone the name’s continuance. A similar poll released by Public Policy Polling earlier this year states “71 percent do not think the team should change its name, while 18 percent said the team should change it and 11 percent said they are not sure” (Brady). This poll reflects a trend found among these polls, which concludes that many Native Americans see no offensive material in these nicknames. A source much closer to home for the Redskins’ community surfaced from the desk of Dan Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins. He recently wrote a letter to the team’s season ticket holders in which he referenced two polls he felt explained his reasoning for keeping the 80-year-old team name. He first asserts “the highly respected Annenberg Public Policy Center polled nearly 1,000 self-identified Native Americans from across the continental U.S. and found that 90% of Native Americans did not find the team name ‘Washington Redskins’ to be ‘offensive’” (Snyder). He continues on: “In an April 2013 Associated Press survey, 79% of the respondents stated the Washington Redskins should not change their name, while only 11% believed the team’s name should change” (Snyder). Snyder draws on the same poll referenced in Antle’s argument. This

81 could be because of the reliability of the source or due to the fact that few credited polling bodies’ poll about questions related to this controversial topic. Opinion polls illustrate many points, ranging from far left to far right on any controversy. In this issue, opinion polls portray the public’s view on the Native American mascot controversy, which proves vital to understanding whether people take offense to these racial icons, rather than the commonly referenced scholarly perspectives. Though their significance is unquestionable, opinion polls alone cannot decide this debate without the support of logic.

Far from establishing a consensus, the ideas and opinions above remind the people that substantial research on the use of Native American symbols and mascots in sports and their effects must be completed before a clear solution can be reached. Research, particularly deductive research that draws a direct correlation from one aspect to another, acts as a crucial role in understanding this topic. Several questions remain to be answered. How can everyone come to an agreement on whether these names directly affect Native American’s culture and way of life? What underlying causes for American Indian struggles in today’s society exist other than these negative stereotypes? Answering these questions will lead society to a consensus to either keep the name or abandon it.

Given these points, in a recent article, Erik Brady quoted Washington Redskins’ team statement regarding their opinion toward this controversy: “We are proud of the support our name has across the nation, and we will continue to do everything we can to honor the great heritage that our name represents.”

These words apply not only to supporters of the team and its mascot, but also to Native American activists who can regard the attempt to support their people proudly using these symbols and the Redskin mascot.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Melody Ballard is a junior at East Carolina University majoring in Communication Media Studies. She transferred to ECU in the fall of 2013 and has loved her time here so far. She has enjoyed doing research at ECU and was chosen to speak at a symposium in the spring of 2014 regarding her research in the Stuart Wright Collection. She intends to graduate in the spring of 2016.

Bibliography Antle, W. James, III. "Redskins: A Manufactured Controversy." The National Interest (2013): n. pag. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.

Brady, Erik. "Poll: 71% Don't Think Redskins Should Change Name." USA Today 2 Jan. 2014, Sports sec.: n. pag.

Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

"Official Site of the Washington Redskins." News RSS. National Football League, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014 Sigelman, Lee. "Hail To The Redskins? Public Reactions To A Racially Insensitive Team Name." Sociology Of Sport Journal 15.4 (1998): 317-325. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

Snyder, Daniel. "We Are Redskins Nation." Washington Post 10 Oct. 2013, Regional ed., Editorial Copy sec.: A21.

Web. Stapleton, Bruce. Redskins: Racial Slur or Symbol of Success? San Jose: Writers Club Press, 2001. Print. United States.

Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. The United States Department of Justice. By Steven W. Perry. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Dec. 2004. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

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Influence of Spanish Colonization: How Christianization Influenced Nahuatl in Central Mexico Kayla Carr During the age of Iberian conquest and colonization of New Spain (Mexico City), the interaction between the Spanish conquerors and Mexican natives resulted in an exchange of cultural and social concepts. The Spaniards imposed religious and political concepts on the natives, resulting in changed social behavior and cultural practices of the natives. During the age of conquest, Spanish priests, such as the Franciscans, took charge of preserving and using both Native American language and literature in order to further the conversion of the natives of New Spain. Though Franciscan priests aimed to keep natives separate from Spaniards, the two cultures interacted and the interaction resulted in profound changes in religion that overlapped in language and literature. The interaction of Spanish and native peoples of Mexico City during the age of colonization resulted in an evolution of Nahuatl language as the Spanish aimed to assimilate natives into Spanish life and convert them to Catholicism; the Christianization of Mexico resulted in Catholic religious sentiments and Castilian linguistic attributes being adopted into the language of the Nahua people.

When looking at the process of assimilation during the early age of Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century, disputes arose on how to approach the issue of language. Many Spanish officials argued for the Hispanicization of natives, but many priests disagreed with this idea. Priests were tasked with spreading Catholicism; they were not concerned with Hispanicizing the natives, but rather ensuring they adopted the necessary practices to become good Catholics. Priests taught religion through either native language or Latin—they did not use Spanish as they wanted the natives to be receptive to their teachings.1 Natives were more likely to convert to Catholicism if taught in their own language. Over time, priests became concerned about the poor treatment of natives and the resulting vast population decline and therefore began to seek and support policies that helped combat this.

1

Shirley Brice Heath, Telling Tongues (New York: Teachers College Press, 1972), 15.

In 1512 the House of Burgos passed the first systematic code to better govern the settlers in new Spanish territory in the New World and better improve the conditions of encomienda, the system of rule used in Spanish territory in the Americas.2 Though the Law of Burgos was originally issued for the Caribbean, the codes established for the conversion of natives continued to be utilized as new territory was acquired as the sixteenth century progressed. With extreme population decline amongst the natives, the Law of Burgos was designed to improve the working conditions of natives and regulate encomienda as a means of fighting the decline in natives’ numbers.3 In section III of the Law of Burgos, it is stated that“…[encomenderos] be obliged to erect a structure to be used for a church….” This statement illustrates the strong focus on Christianizing the native population. This idea is carried throughout the document as section IV discusses the steps encomenderos must take to see that the Indians in his care are progressing in the Catholic faith and becoming good Christians. One important rule listed in section IV is that the Indians be taught the Ten Commandments, Seven Deadly Sins, and the Articles of Faith with “great love and gentleness.” Those failing to teach his Indians in such a manner faced a penalty of paying six gold pesos as a fine. Most of the document pertains to stating the duties of encomenderos in respect to their Indians and ensuring that the Indians under their possession continue to practice the Catholic faith. Other rules in the Law of Burgos includes that Indians be made to confess if they fall ill, all Indians born in encomienda be baptized, and Indians in encomienda are to be given proper sleeping arrangements and not be forced to sleep on the

2

The Law of Burgos, 1512-1513, “Finding World History,” Emory University. http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/BAKEWELL/texts/b urgoslaws.html.

3 Mark A. Burkholder & Lyman L. Johnson, Colonial Latin America. 8th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 43.

The Lookout ground.4 Overall, the Law of Burgos was issued in order to fight the devastating native population decline, control encomiendas, and promote the Christianization of natives.

The Law of Burgos was not the only document that outlined encomenderos as being in charge of converting the natives under their authority. Several documents were issued throughout the sixteenth century including “Directorio Para Confersores: ‘Lords Who Hold Temporal Government Over Vassals’” which was issued under the command of the Third Provincial Council of Mexico.5 The final segment of the document discusses this issue: The encomenderos of this territory must examine their consciences in light of what has been stated here…If they do not comply with this, the confessor will seek to [have them] avoid [their shortcomings] and make them recall it, aspiring with great care and vigilance that there be competent spiritual ministers, to educate the natives and administer holy sacraments to them….6 This document illustrates that conversion of natives was a primary focus of the Spanish throughout the sixteenth century. Many methods of conversion were practiced, but as seen with the Law of Burgos and the document above, using encomenderos to convert natives was one strategy.

Kayla Carr 84 Over Vassals.’” However, though there were instructions on ways encomenderos could Christianize the natives under their control, there was not a specific process described. With the arrival of Franciscan priests in New Spain in 1524, a more methodical conversion process developed.7 To convert natives of New Spain, priests and missionaries enacted the methods of destroying native idols and other pagan religious symbols, imposing Catechism, baptizing natives, and using native languages to reach native peoples.

In converting natives to Catholicism, priests had to find ways to virtually replace native religion. Some Spanish friars felt that some things needed to be destroyed in order to continue to spread the Catholic faith. In Figure 1, an image shows Catholic priests setting fire to masks used in Aztec religious ceremonies.

Many burnings were conducted throughout the sixteenth century as means of fighting resistance to native conversion. When looking at the picture in Figure 1, it is apparent that the need to replace native religion with Catholicism was dire, and resulted in a vast destruction of native artifacts, such as the religious masks, clothing and books. However, though there was much destruction of native property in the name of the Catholic Church, priests did realize the need to preserve native culture and literature. As many priests supported the use of native languages, priests played an important role in the preservation of native documents and native culture.8

In regulating encomienda, a primary focus was placed upon the Christianizing of natives, as seen throughout the Law of Burgos and the “Directorio Para Confersores: ‘Lords Who Hold Temporal Government 7

4

Spain, The Law of Burgos, 1512-1513, section XVI. Third Provincial Council of Mexico, Directorio Para Confersores: ‘Lords Who Hold Temporal Government Over Vassals’, Mexico City, 1585; in John F. Schwaller’s Chapter 4, Colonial Lives, edited by Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 32 6 Ibid., 36.

5

Robert Ricard, The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico: An Essay on the Apostolate and the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain: 1523-1572 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), 15.

8 Figure 1, The burning of “clothes and books,” Description of the City and Province of Tlaxcala, ca. 1581-84, by Diego Muñoz, Camargo. Glasgow University Library, Department of Special Collections, Scotland. Retrieved from http://www.smith.edu/vistas/vistas_web/gallery/detail/ book-burning_det.htm#. burning_det.htm#. The information in this paragraph was gathered from the Figure and the discussion: Leibsohn, Dana, and Barbara Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 15201820. http://www.smith.edu/vistas/vistas_web/gallery/detail/ book-burning.htm

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Figure 1: The burning of “clothes and books,” Description of the City and Province of Tlaxcala, ca. 1581-84.by Diego Muñoz.

Camargo. Glasgow University Library, Department of Special Collections, Scotland. http://www.smith.edu/vistas/vistas_web/gallery/detail/book-burning_det.htm#.

In this regard, there were three main ways to approach natives’ use of idolatry with language and writing: one, by recording the natives’ idolatry and contesting them in the same text; two, by discussing the natives’ idolatry and other religious abuses through such documents as “Sermones” or “Confesionarios;” and three, by compiling a list of all abuses, current and

past, and contesting them with use of religious writings.9 The latter way was favored by early Franciscan and ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún as seen through his statement in the appendix of his Book V, in his larger work Historia General, also called the Florentine Codex:

9 J. Jorge de Alva, H.B. Nicholson, and Eloise Quinones Keber, eds., The Work of Bernardino de Sahagun: Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth Century Aztec Mexico (Albany: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, 1988) 108.

The Lookout These superstitions harm the Faith, and therefore it is well to recognize them.

Only these few have been recorded, though there are many more. But diligent preachers and confessors should seek them out, in order to understand them in confessions and to preach against them; for they are like a mange which sickeneth the Faith.10 As Sahagún felt it necessary to preserve native religious practices in order to combat them and increase the spread of Catholicism, many later priests also supported the notion to preserve native culture.

In 1523, Franciscan order Fray Pedro de Gante became the first friar to learn the Nahuatl language. He learned that there were no characters for the natives to write down their language so he transcribed the Nahuatl words using the Roman alphabet. At the Franciscan school in Texcoco, the native children of the elite were taught reading and writing based on this model of signs.11 Priests taught both adults and children the Christian doctrine, but according to Franciscan missionaries such as Toribio Motolinia it was the children who played a key role in the conversion of New Spain.12 Franciscan priests felt that if they could turn native youth against their own fathers in exchange for loyalty to the priests, then the children could help replace the pagan religions and serve as “the ministers for the destruction of idolatry.”13 In order to gain the loyalty of the native youth, Franciscan priests would humiliate the parents, often through emasculating the fathers, and then give the children gifts. The gifts would then indebt the children to the priests; gifts were controlled in native Pueblo society by adults as a means to control their children. The

Kayla Carr 86 Franciscan priests took this native practice and manipulated it to fit into a new context in order to gain loyalty from the native children to further conversion in Mexico. Gutierrez summarized the process of using children in the role of conversion of adults as follows: By injecting themselves and their gifts into a system of calculated exchanges by which seniors gained the labor, respect, and obedience of juniors, the padres forged a cadre of youths who stood ready to denounce the sins of their parents.14 Once the children became loyal to the priests, they would learn the Catechism being taught by the priests, most often in missions. At the missions the native children were taught how to read, write, and sing and play musical instruments.15 Another Franciscan, Fray Alonso de Molina, pulled together a NahuatlCastilian text of the Catechism that included the essential prayers and verities needed to be known by the natives in order to participate in baptism, confession, and other Catholic rituals, and then complementary virtues which were typically only taught to children.

This was part of another effort to convert the natives, the Catechism, or teaching of the Christian doctrine.16 Molina’s Doctrina Christiana, seen in Figure 2, was the primary tool for teaching the native children at the Franciscan missions.17 Textual aids were used by priests and missionaries to teach the natives the Catholic religious doctrine as the printing press made its way to Mexico around 1533.18 This textual instruction of the Catechism is yet another example of using native language to influence the conversion of the natives of New Spain in the sixteenth century; the process of educating children in literacy to aid native conversion continued beyond the sixteenth century.

10

Bernardino Sahagun, Florentine Codex, Book V appendix, Volume 195-196,1950-1982, in Charles E. Dibble’s “Sahagun’s Appendices: ‘There is no Reason to be Suspicious of the Ancient Practices,’” in The Work of Bernardino de Sahagun, Klor de Alva, Nicholson, and Keber, eds. (Albany: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, 1988), 107.

11 Heath, 16-17.

12 Ricard, 101.

13 Ramon A. Gutierrez, When Jesus Came, The Corn

Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Power, and Sexuality in New Mexico, 1500-1846 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), 75. http://hdl.handle.net.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/2027/heb.0053 1.0001.001.

14

Ibid., 76-80.

Ibid., 80.

16 Ricard, 96, 101-102.

17 Fray Alonso de Molina, Doctrina Christiana, Mexico City, 1585, in John Carter Library Digital Collections, https://archive.org/details/doctrinachristia00moli; Gutierrez,81.

18 Schwaller, 32.

15

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Figure 2: Page from Fray Alonso de Molina’s Doctrina Christiana, written in Nahuatl in 1585. https://archive.org/details/doctrinachristia00moli

As Catholic doctrine was taught to natives, so were specific rituals to ensure proper conversion.

Beginning as a practice in the East Indies and later traveling to New Spain, baptisms were conducted on natives after they received brief instruction on important dogmas of Catholicism. The important dogmas that missionaries and priests focused on instructing the natives before baptisms, according to Motolinia, included a single omnipotent God, the Holy Virgin, an immortal soul, and demons. Baptism was never completed without proper instruction of the natives, except in extenuating circumstances. Sahagún collected Spanish documents of the first sermons preached to the pagan native chiefs and then directed their translation into Nahuatl; this set of documents is called the Platicas.19 Sahagún also included translated

sermons in his Book VI, of the Florentine Codex, including several Spanish sermons with the Nahuatl translation, as seen in Figure 3. Figure 3 includes the Nahuatl translation of the original sermon, along with an English translation, rather than the original Spanish text. The sermon shows the importance of baptizing children as seen with the last lines, “Nowadays this is the truth when they are baptized. Their hearts are truly emeralds, like jewels, lovable because the Holy Ghost is in them.”20 As documents were translated for the natives, it is evident that language was important for the process of conversion during the sixteenth century. In turn, desire to convert natives to Catholicism illustrates an important catalyst in the evolving native languages of New Spain.

20

19

Ricard, 15, 83-84, 96.

Bernardino Sahagun, Florentine Codex, Book VI, Volume 195-196,1950-1982, in Charles E. Dibble’s “Sahagun’s Appendices: ‘There is no Reason to be Suspicious of the Ancient Practices,’” in The Work of Bernardino de Sahagun, edited by Klor de Alva, Nicholson, and Keber, 116. Dibble translated the original Spanish text into English, to be compared to the Nahuatl translation.

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Kayla Carr 88

In 1550, the Crown ruled that the Indians needed to be taught Spanish, but several priests objected. One Franciscan, Fray Rodrigo de la Cruz, revealed his dissatisfaction in a letter to the King, and declared that Nahuatl be taught as the official native language rather than Spanish – King Charles V did not agree with the

priests. Despite the King’s wish to make Spanish the official language, Franciscan friars still aimed to spread Nahuatl.21 Nahua people were able to record much in writing by using the Roman alphabet, adopted through teachings by the Franciscans. An aide of the Franciscan friars created language lessons in Nahua based on

Figure 3: Nahuatl sermon found in Sahagun’s Book VI of the Florentine Codex, Reprinted in The Work of Bernardino de Sahagun: Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth Century Aztec Mexico J. Jorge de Alva, H.B. Nicholson, and Eloise Quinones Keber, eds. (Albany: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, 1988), p. 116-117, with English translation provided by Charles Dibble.

21

Heath, 18-19, 24.

7 Kayla Carr everyday dialogue. The dialogue showed influences from pre-conquest Nahua and post-conquest Spanish – there were conventions each member of the conversation must follow, and native terminology such as “uncle” for kinship aides to native rulers.22 Other texts and documents were also written in Nahuatl that also had religious references and religious purposes, such as legal documents, plays, and poems.

During the sixteenth century of the post-conquest world, Spanish greatly influenced Nahuatl writings, but the written native language still had its own identifying characteristics. In Nahuas and Spaniards, James Lockhart discusses the important influence the Spanish had on Nahuatl documents while examining the idiosyncrasies seen within Nahuatl texts. Many Nahuatl documents presented in Lockhart’s text are told in dialogue format, contain great detail, and express the importance of ritual as was the practice of the natives in their record keeping.23 One such document is the Grant of a site for a house, San Miguel Tocuillan, 1583. This document contains great details about all circumstances surrounding the grant; it is written partly in typical dialogue and partly in narrative.24 The importance of ritual within Nahua culture is noticeable within this document as greetings exchanged between parties, people entering and sitting, and people being offered food, such as tortillas, are recorded within the document.25 One striking feature within this grant document is that several Christian references are made, though no Spaniards are present during the recording of this event.26 Such Christian references include Ana saying “Don’t let us give you so much trouble; let us take a bit of the precious land of our precious father the saint San Miguel, and there we will build a little house.”27 Here, Ana states that the land belongs to San Miguel, the patron saint of their community. Another

James Lockhart, Nauhuas and Spaniards: Postconquest Central Mexican History and Philology (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991), 2-6.

23 Ibid., 55, 66-67.

24 Lockhart, 67; Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin Terraciano. Eds. Mesoamerican Voices: Native-Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Guatemala (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 100.

25 Grant for a site for a house, San Miguel Tocuillan, 1583, in Lockhart’s Nahuas and Spaniards, 72.

26 Restall, Mesoamerican Voices, 100.

27 Grant for a site for a house, San Miguel Tocuillan, 1583, in Lockhart, Nahuas and Spaniards, 71.

The Lookout example of using Christian references occurs near the end of the document when Ana states that she will burn candles and incense for San Miguel in thanks of using his land to build a house.28 Both remarks to Christianity by the native Ana illustrate not only that priests used native language, written and oral, to help convert natives, but also that once natives converted they utilized Christian symbols and ideas within their own language, written and oral.

In addition to legal documents, native people residing in post-conquest Mexico in the sixteenth century used writing to capture acts such as songs, poems, and plays. In several Nahuatl dramas in central Mexico, natives made Christian references within their theater; this again illustrates the lasting impact Christianization had on the natives and their language, as they spoke and wrote about their interpretation of their newfound religion, though often incorporating Christian ideas with traditional beliefs and/or practices.

The earliest of these Judeo-Christian influenced Nahua plays was performed in 1533 by Aztecs in Tlatelolco.29 The play “Final Judgment” is a Nahuatl morality play in which sinful behavior results in eternal damnation, and it is placed in the larger context of the apocalypse.

Franciscan priests, among many other Europeans, brought their own ideas of the future end of the world; natives often adopted some of the Franciscan prophetic views and merged them with their own to better make sense of their situation in post-conquest life. Before the Spanish conquest, natives viewed their cycle of life ending with a series of earthquakes; after conquest they adopted Judeo-Christian ideas on the end of the world where Jesus Christ would descend from Heaven, judging every human in turn.30 The Judeo-Christian adoption of the end of the world is seen quite clear throughout the dialogue: CHRIST: Today Pardon doesn’t exist anymore. Go….Never again will you have any hope….

22

FIRST DEMON: Get Moving, O wicked one! Don’t you remember what you did on

Ibid., 74.

Louise M. Burkhart, Aztecs on Stage: Religious Theater in Colonial Mexico (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011), 3.

30 Ibid., 61-62, 65.

28 29

The Lookout earth? Now we’ll pay you back in the depths of hell…

LUCIA: I am four hundred times unfortunate! I am a great sinner! Oh, I have earned the house of hell!31 The dialogue in the play embodies the Christian ideas that the Spanish brought to Mexico, in regards to sin and life after death. The play is summarized with a short monologue by a priest warning audience members to do what is required of them as Christians to avoid the same fate as Lucia.32 “Final Judgment” includes many symbolic entities including the “Holy Church” who introduces the concept of marriage and rituals that affect people’s spiritual condition, and “Sweeping” who embodies a purifying practice important to natives after Spanish conquest. The symbolism within the play contains aspects from native and Spanish beliefs. The judgment scene itself follows European narratives as the Antichrist appears before Lucia before the return of Christ himself, angels sound trumpets to awaken the dead, and Jesus Christ would descend from Heaven and pass judgment on every human soul.33 Overall, “Final Judgment” is a morality play that portrays a sense of acceptance of Judeo-Christian ideas on sin, confession, life after death, and the apocalypse. This Nahua drama illustrates the influence Catholicism had on not only language, but literature and culture.

As Christian references began appearing in the works of playwrights, other Nahua writings began addressing the religion brought to Mexico by the Spanish. Not all of the writings, however, completely accepted the Christianity forced upon the natives. Some poems and songs addressed the Judeo-Christian God and then declared their native god(s) as true. During the sixteenth century, Christian psalms were written in Nahuatl, by priests such as Sahagún, in an effort to replace old songs of the natives.34 Sahagún published Psalmodia christiana in the sixteenth century with hopes of teaching natives new songs deemed

“Final Judgment”, Tlatelolco, 1533, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., in Burkhart’s Aztecs on Stage, 77.

32 Ibid., 77-78.

33 Burkhart, 63-65.

34 Jongsoo Lee, The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl: Pre-Hispanic History, Religion, and Nahua Poetics (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008), 220.

Kayla Carr 90 appropriate through the eyes of Spanish Catholics.

Though the psalms were used by natives, many native names for their traditional gods, such as “Ipalnemonhuani,” were used instead of terms for the Christian God. Though some native literature was written in acceptance of the Spanish religion, as seen with the play, other works were written as means of expressing their faith in their own gods and that their own gods would provide spiritual aid against the new God of the Spanish.35 In one poem, attributed to Nezahualcoyotl, the native writer expresses questions of belief in his native god but then comes to accept his native god as being true.36 The poet credited Nezahualcoyotl, the “poet-king," because he was an important symbol of religion and philosophy in native society.37 Often, the first two stanzas have been viewed as proof of acceptance of the Christian God, but the latter stanzas prove otherwise. The first stanzas, which discuss the wavering acceptance in native gods, were taken out of context from the entire poem to justify this as evidence of successful conversion, during postconquest society. However, when looking at the poem in its entirety, it is apparent that this was not the case.

The final stanza shows the native’s surety in his own religion: But you kindly cause it rain, From you your wealth and destiny come,Oh Life Giver [Ipalnemohuani]…

Fragrant flowers, valuable flowers; I desired them anxiously!

I was without knowing correctly.38 The poem’s final stanza shows that native religion was not completely phased out by Spanish missionaries.

Though interpretations of some of the poems by Nahua poets, such as the poem presented here in which the author credited Nezahualcoyotl, try to show that natives fully accepted the Catholic religion; these interpretations were often taken out of context as seen with the poem above.

Overall, the oral and written language of Nahuatl was greatly influenced by Spanish post-conquest society

31

Ibid., 221.

Ibid.,, 223-224.

37 Ibid., 224.

38 “A lo divino gentilico,” circa 1550-1570, Romances, Angel Maria Garibay K., 1993, in Lee’s The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl, 223 35 36

7 Kayla Carr because of the Catholic Church’s focus on Christianizing the natives of New Spain. Though the Church initially began supporting the Hispanicization of natives, Franciscan priests realized that conversion would be more likely if natives were taught Christian doctrines and dogma in their native tongue. Because of this realization, Franciscan missionaries wrote documents in Nahuatl based on the Roman alphabet; the language evolved from pictographs to lettering during this time. As the written language continued to expand in the sixteenth century natives adopted much of what they learned, through converting to Catholicism, into their writings. As seen in Grant of a site for a house, San Miguel Tocuillan, 1583, references were made to the patron saint of the community, and in the play “Final Judgment,” Catholic ideas on the apocalypse and life after death were present in the Nahuatl play. However, despite the measures priests went to convert the natives including baptism, imposing Catechism, destroying native idols and other pagan religious symbols, many natives only worshiped the new God because of the rules forced upon them, never halting their belief in their native gods, as seen in the poem.

In conclusion, whether or not each native fully converted, the role priests played in sixteenth century New Spain proved important as the primary focus placed upon conversion of natives resulted in changes in the native language of Nahuatl. Nahua documents adopted the Roman lettering taught by Franciscan priests, often merged aspects of their culture with Spanish formatting of legal documents, and incorporated Catholic ideologies into their own traditional beliefs. Spanish priests such as Franciscans, used language and literacy as a way to Catholicize the native peoples in Mexico City. By teaching children

The Lookout Catechism and performing Catholic rituals such as baptisms on the natives after instructing the natives in the Gospel, the Spanish aimed to convert the natives.

The goal to convert the natives was successful in that natives began accepting the Catholic God as the Savior as seen in the legal document Grant for a site for a house, San Miguel Tocuillan, 1583, or merely accepting the existence of the Catholic God as seen in the poem “A lo divino gentilico.” In addition JudeoChristian ideas, such as the apocalypse as seen in the play “Final Judgment,” were adopted by the natives in central Mexico. Other Judeo-Christian ideas were merged with native beliefs; several depictions of saints in Mexico contained native imagery, such as the Lady of Guadalupe holding a turkey and arrows.39 There are a vast number of documents and images from the sixteenth century that show the incorporation of Spanish religion in native culture.

From legal documents to poetry and plays, language played an important role in converting the natives of Mexico City. Because these documents exist that show the acceptance and/or acknowledgement of Catholicism and Catholic ideas, conversion led by language and literacy was successful in Mexico during the sixteenth century. Franciscan missions and schools to teach language and literacy continued during the seventeenth century, as well as the debate on how to use language in terms of conversion. Some, like Charles III, still argued for the Hispanicization of the natives,40 despite there being success in the area using native languages. Overall, when examining the documental evidence of sixteenth century Mexico City, it is apparent that the Christianization of the natives was made possible with the use of language and literacy, and in turn, the Nahuatl language was able to evolve orally and in written form.

39 40

Gutierrez, 166.

Heath, 49.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: My name is Kayla Carr and I am a senior double

majoring in Middle Grades Education and History. I am a North Carolina Teaching Fellow, the 2014 Historian for the Lambda-Eta Chapter of the national history honor society Phi Alpha Theta, and a writing consultant at the East Carolina University Writing Center. In my spare time I enjoy reading, writing, and traveling.

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Bibliography PRIMARY SOURCES: Grant of a site for a house, San Miguel Tocuillan, 1583. In James Lockhart’s Chapter 4 “And Ana Wept,” in Nauhuas and Spaniards: Postconquest Central Mexican History and Philology. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.

Fray Alonso de Molina, Doctrina Christiana, Mexico City, 1585, in John Carter Library Digital Collections, Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/doctrinachristia00moli. Accessed 23 November 2013.

Munoz, Diego. Burning of “idols,” Description of the City and Province of Tlaxcala, ca. 1581–84. Camargo.

Glasgow University Library, Department of Special Collections, Scotland. Retrieved from http://www.smith.edu/vistas/vistas_web/gallery/detail/book-burning_det.htm#. Accessed 11 November 2013.

Spain, "The Law of Burgos, 1512-1513." “Finding World History.” Emory University. Retrieved from: http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell//BAKEWELL/texts/burgoslaws.html. Accessed 4 November 2013.

Third Provincial Council of Mexico, Directorio Para Confersores: ‘Lords Who Hold Temporal Government Over Vassals’, Mexico City, 1585; in John F. Schwaller’s Chapter 4, Colonial Lives, Edited by Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) SECONDARY PRINTED SOURCES: Burkhart, Louise M. Aztecs on Stage: Religious Theater in Colonial Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011.

Burkholder, Mark A. & Johnson, Lyman L. Colonial Latin America. Ed. 8. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Gutierrez, Ramon A. When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Power, and Sexuality in New Mexico, 1500-1846. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. Web. URL: http://hdl.handle.net.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/2027/heb.00531.0001.001. Date Accessed: 24 November 2013.

Heath, Shirley Brice. Telling Tongues. New York: Teachers College Press, 1972.

Klor de Alva, J. Jorge, Henry B. Nicholson, and Eloise Quiñones Keber, eds. The Work of Bernardino de Sahagún: Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth-Century Aztec Mexico. Albany: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State Univ. of New York at Albany, 1988.

Lee, Jongsoo. The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl: Pre-Hispanic History, Religion, and Nahua Poetics. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008.

Lockhart, James. Nauhuas and Spaniards: Postconquest Central Mexican History and Philology. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.

Restall, Matthew, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin Terraciano, eds. Mesoamerican Voices: Native Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Guatemala. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Ricard, Robert. The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico: An Essay on the Apostolate and the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain: 1523-1572. Berkley: University of California Press, 1966.

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SECONDARY ONLINE SOURCES: Leibsohn, Dana, and Barbara Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.smith.edu/vistas, 2005. Retrieved from http://www.smith.edu/vistas/vistas_web/gallery/detail/book-burning.html Accessed 11 November 2013.

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A Decade of Aids: Shaping the Gay Community Sebastian Jones Today in America, AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is considered a severe, yet manageable, disease. The demographic most heavily stricken with AIDS and most likely to contract AIDS is heterosexual, African-American females; however, in 1981, when the AIDS epidemic began in America, AIDS and the demographic most heavily afflicted was completely different. During the early years of the epidemic, AIDS was not a diagnosis, but a death sentence. The groups most affected by the disease were sometimes referred to as the 4-H’s: homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin addicts, and Haitians.1 The gay community faced the most stigmatism and was the most vocal during the AIDS epidemic. The gay community post-1990s is drastically different from the gay community prior to 1981: Gays in the 1970s lived under an intense veil of secrecy, shame, and fear, while gays of today have more freedom of expression. This dynamic change in the gay community must be accredited to the AIDS epidemic. The first ten years of the AIDS epidemic ravished the gay community; however, it was adversely beneficial and the gay community gained an immense amount of visibility and unity that, sadly, only great tragedy and strife can produce.

Examining the gay community prior to 1981 is key to understanding the origin of the AIDS epidemic in America. In actuality, the gay community in the 1970s was merely a budding community, nothing like the present day gay community. Gays were coming off the heels of the new sexual revolution that occurred around the same time in the 1970s. At this time, the gay community was obsessed with sex.2 Gays of the era insisted that the wonder lands of erotica, like bathhouses and gay bars, were places of freedom and liberation; e.g., the Bulldog Baths, the

largest bathhouse in the world, was infamous for its sexual extremes and deviances. This is the reason that thousands of gays migrated to San Francisco and to New York’s Greenwich Village: to escape the ridicule, shame, and abuse that they faced elsewhere. 3 While Greenwich and Castro Street were viewed as gay Meccas, these neighborhoods were not excluded from prejudice and injustice. In fact, the Stonewall Riots, the event that founded the gay pride parade, occurred in Greenwich Village at a gay bar named Stonewall Inn. During a routine harassment of gays, the police were shocked when several drag queens fought back against their abusers.4 Moreover, the secrecy of the gay community was still prevalent during the 1970s, notably more so on the east coast in New York. For Instance, code words and phrases were used by gay males: The term ‘Friend of Dorothy’, derived from the famous play The Wizard of Oz, was used to inquire or assert an individual’s homosexuality. There were printed guide books for gay tourists or new gays that noted popular gay bars and subway restrooms, where one might find the sexual trills he sought.5 The level of promiscuity coupled with the growing gay communities created a perfect petri dish for venereal diseases. Many doctors, like Dr. David Ostrow, who frequently dealt with homosexual patients, expressed concerns about the ease with which diseases spread through the gay community, such as hepatitis B and amebiasis, or ‘gay bowel syndrome.’6 And sure enough, a few years later, the medical world would be faced with an incomparable new disease: AIDS. The official start of the epidemic was in early 1981. However, the Patient Zero’s, Gaëtan Dugas,

Randy Shilts. And the Band Played on, 18–19.

Randy Shilts. And the Band Played on, 15.

5 Thomas L. Long, AIDS and American Apocalypticism: the Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic (New York: SUNY Press, 2005), 29–30.

6 Randy Shilts. And the Band Played on, 18–19 3

Sander L. Gilman, “AIDS and syphilis: The iconography of disease,” October (1987): 1.

2 Randy Shilts, And the Band Played on: Politics People, and the AIDS epidemic (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 21–24.

1

4

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affairs during the late 1970s were said to have caused the spread of the disease in gay communities from coast to coast and across continents.7 AIDS was discovered when several homosexual men were stricken with a rare type of cancer typically seen in older Jewish males: Kaposi’s sarcoma. As these strange phenomena persisted, medical professionals sought answers and ultimately concluded that this was a new disease. One of the first purposed names for the disease, known today as AIDS, was GRIDS: gay related immune deficiency syndrome.8 This aptly displayed the inaccurate portrayal of the disease, AIDS, and foreshadowed the intense stigmatism that gays and other PWAs, or persons with AIDS, would soon face.

strain on society, homosexuals were perceived as sexual deviants, and poor Haitians immigrates were stereotyped as evil witch-doctors. None of these demographic garnered any sympathy from the ‘moral majority’.

To comprehend the reasons that AIDS and PWAs were so stigmatized, it is essential to understand society’s fear of contagion and, also, certain preexisting stigma within American society. The general population’s initial fear of AIDS was an expected reaction. In fact, studies have shown that the general population feared contagion, even though they could not contract the disease through contact with the sick, e.g., cancer.9 Fear and panic are natural reactions to a seemingly invisible and equally lethal pathogen.

However, the levels of hysteria displayed during the AIDS epidemic far exceeded the expectation. This is, partly, due to the already marginalized groups associated with the disease.10

Moreover, even those perceived as being innocent AIDS victims, like hemophiliacs and individuals who contracted AIDS through blood transfusions, were stigmatized because the disease was associated with societal dissenters.13 However, of the 4-H’s homosexuals faced the most stigmatism, the stigmatism faced by gay PWAs was unimaginable, and the stigmatization came from all facets of their lives: family, friends, lovers, and work.

Again, the term GRIDS proves significant when news headlines began to read “gay plague” and “gay cancer”11, framing AIDS’s identity as a gay disease, which would cause numerous problems in the future of AIDS activism. Several AIDS activists asserted that AIDS was permitted to spread unchecked and unnoticed by the U.S. government because the groups plagued with the disease were associated with ‘amoral subcultures’. Intravenous drug abusers were viewed as a

7 Randy Shilts. And the Band Played on, 22–23.

8 Randy Shilts. And the Band Played on, 121–122.

9 Mark R. Kowalewski, “DOUBLE STIGMA AND BOUNDARY MAINTENANCE How Gay Men Deal with AIDS,” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 17, no. 2 (1988): 212.

10 Josh Gamson, "Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy: AIDS Activism and Social Movement ‘Newness’," Social Problems, 36, no. 4 (1989): 357–358.

11 Thomas L. Long, AIDS and American Apocalypticism, 89–90.

During the early 1980s, the peak of Reaganism, the moral majority dominated the nation. White Angelo-Saxon Protestants comprised the moral majority, and their views were extremely conservative, both politically and socially. The moral majority defined the social norms, and any action or group that defied these norms was label abnormal. Consequently, the idea that the victims of AIDS deserved the disease circulated through the American public.12

Later in the epidemic, the gay community would gather to fight AIDS; however, in the early years, many gays in the community shunned PWAs, inspiring several authors to explore this strange phenomenon.

The reason homosexual PWAs were shunned by their own community is double stigmatism.

Authors Josh Gamson and Gregory M. Herek both discuss the challenges faced by PWAs because of the preexisting stigma garnered by being a part of an already marginalized group. However, it was Mark R. Kowalewski, who characterized and documented the effects of double stigmatism in his article, “Double Stigma and Boundary Maintenance: How Gay Men Deal with AIDS.” HIV-negative homosexuals began to separate themselves physically and socially from PWAs. Many homosexuals, who were already heavily stigmatized by the general population, began to adopt the attitudes of the general population. They categorized themselves as

Josh Gamson, “Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy:,” 357–358.

13 Josh Gamson, “Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy:,” 357–358.

12

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normal gays and agreed with the notions that PWAs were at fault for contracting the disease because of the PWAs’ own promiscuity. One gay waiter in Kowalewski’s seminar said that PWAs “got what they asked for,” saying:

wouldn’t come in the room unless they had gloves and a mask and they wouldn’t touch me… [And] for a time I couldn’t go over to somebody’s house for dinner. And they still use paper plates [when I eat there].16

People getting AIDS…do drugs every weekend, then go to [an after-hours bar], then go to a bath house. My personal experience what I see, is the element of our community who lead lifestyles of being gay in the fast lane… It’s no surprise to me that they get sick.14

Again, there is a wide variation in each PWA’s personal experience, but this would be one of the worst reactions.

PWAs also had to deal with stigma from physicians and many PWAs faced discrimination when searching for health care.

In an article entitled “Living with the Stigma of AIDS,” Rose Weitz documented the experiences of twenty-three gay and bisexual men with AIDS. Several of the men interviewed discussed the alienation they experienced after sharing their AIDS diagnosis with friends. Similarly, and more painfully, two of the men in Weitz’s study reported that their lovers abandoned them shortly after learning of their diagnosis. This supports Kowalewski’s theories perfectly; there are, however, instances where PWAs found tremendous amounts of support from friends and lovers.15

examined the stigma physicians attached to patients with AIDS. The researchers created two different vignettes; the two scenarios were identical, except, in one vignette, the patient was described as a heterosexual male suffering from leukemia and in the other vignette, the patient was a homosexual male suffering from AIDS. The results were shocking. The doctors overwhelming showed their disdain and prejudice towards the homosexual patient with AIDS. Many of the physicians displayed reluctance to partake in routine conversations, let alone any hospitable bedside manner.17

Many PWAs noted that it was exponentially harder to confide in family members about their disease, because families of gays often rejected their homosexual lifestyle. Even those who did embrace their gay relatives were still disturbed by the news. Some gays found that the disease brought their families closer together, because faced with swift and impending death, sexual orientation seemed insignificant. However, Weitz argued the contrary; she asserted that the extremely sick PWAs had less energy and were less likely to engage in any type of sexual activity and, thus, the reasons for the families disapproval dissipated as the PWAs’ symptoms worsened. Regardless, this is viewed as an extraordinarily positive reception compared to other experiences of PWAs and their families.

For instance, a twenty-nine year old Mormon salesman, who participated in Weitz’s study, reported that his family:

In a study published by the American Journal of Health, authors St. Lawrence, Smith, Hood, and Cook

These attitudes were attributed to the preexisting prejudice the doctors felt towards homosexuals, and not necessarily from the disease. However, this does not excuse the actions of physicians, who have sworn oaths to provide nondiscriminatory care. Aside from primary doctors, many PWAs had trouble finding specialist that would provide the necessary care. Although hospitals typically could not refuse care, several PWAs reported the ignorance and prejudice displayed by hospital staff.18 In contrast, there were those physicians and other medical professionals who extended far beyond the call of duty, providing their patients with personal and intimate emotional support. One physician spoke about an AIDS patient that he had treated who would visit the physician’s home for dinner and holidays. The doctor also expressed the impending grief that he and his

Rose Weitz, “Living with the Stigma of AIDS:,” 28-–9.

Kelly St Lawrence, Smith Jr, Hood, and Donna J. Cook, "Stigmatization of AIDS patients by physicians," American Journal of Public Health 77 no. 7 (1987): 789– 791.

18 Rose Weitz, “Living with the Stigma of AIDS:,” 30.

16 17

14 15

Mark R. Kowalewski, “DOUBLE STIGMA,” 219.

Rose Weitz, “Living with the Stigma of AIDS:,” Qualitative Sociology 13, no. 1 (1990):28-–9.

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family would suffer once his patient eventually died of AIDS.19 Moreover, some doctors assisted AIDS patients by using loopholes in their insurance policy by not diagnosing the patient with AIDS or ARC, or AIDS related complex: [We have] been very careful, even so far, never to put the three big letter [ARC] or four big letters [AIDS] on the [insurance] papers. It’s always been just candidiasis or anemia or something ridiculous…. Anything but. And I prefer to keep it that way and I think probably even [the physician’s] notes reflect that.20 Some physicians used highly precise definitions of AIDS while diagnosing patients. This became extremely important once the government mandated that physicians report all the names of AIDS patients to the state. So, doctors stretched the boundaries of the diseases AIDS and ARC. For example, one doctor determined that only the patient’s pharynx, not the entire esophagus, was infected; so the doctor concluded that the patient had ARC not AIDS. The doctor was quoted as saying: ‘If you diagnosed a person with AIDS, people really do back off from that one, I don’t care how knowledgeable people are….We don’t want to diagnose people with AIDS if we don’t have to diagnose.’ He [the physician] said, ‘the first time you go to the hospital with pneumonia or the caner lesions and stuff like that,’ he said, ‘then we got no choice and it has to be reported to the state. But as ARC we don’t really have to report ARC cases.’21 This doctor’s avoidance of the diagnosis of AIDS illustrated the intense fear of discrimination PWAs faced, not only from their insurance companies, but in the professional work environment as well.

their jobs.22 Many PWAs lacked the time and resources to sue; thus, this type of discrimination prevailed during the AIDS epidemic. Another one of Weitz’s interviewees, a tailor, explained that he was forced to quit his job because of immense ignorance and intolerance. The tailor recalled that, after learning that he had AIDS, his employers created obscure tasks for him to perform, like wiping his desk and materials with bleach before he left.23 This type of discrimination in the work place and negligence in the health care system prompted a new generation of activists. This new generation of activist was far different from its predecessors: the social activists of the 1960s. Aside from the stigmatism previously discussed, AIDS activists had to overcome numerous obstacles both internal and external. As the fight against AIDS raged, the style, tactics, and other characteristics of AIDS activism began to change.

Although the gay community was not the only community initially stricken with AIDS in America, it was the most vocal in terms of activism. This can be attributed to the wealth within the gay community compared to that of the other 4-H groups. Along with the middle class socioeconomic status, the gay community also had other demographics common to social activists: many gays of the era had at least some post-secondary education and many gays held undergraduate degrees.24 One of the principle problems of AIDS activism was discerning it from gay activism; and, moreover, whether there should be a separation between the two.

Several AIDS organizations were founded by gays, such as: GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis), ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), and FUQ (Fed Up Queers). These organizations made tremendous strides in the fight against AIDS. However, gay AIDS organizations further promoted the notion that AIDS was a gay disease.25 Moreover, these organizations were noted as being highly exclusive, and many heterosexuals

Although PWAs were protected under the antidiscrimination laws, PWAs were still terminated from U.S. Congress, Government Operations, Federal Response to AID, First session (Washington D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983) 38–39.

23 Rose Weitz, “Living with the Stigma of AIDS:,” 31.

24 Kent M. Jennings and Ellen Ann Andersen, “The importance of social and political context: The case of AIDS activism,” Political Behavior 25 (2003): 181–183.

25 Josh Gamson, "Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy:," 363.

22

Ronald Bayer and Gerald M. Oppenheimer, AIDS doctors: voices from the epidemic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 112–115.

20 Rose Weitz, “Living with the Stigma of AIDS:,” 32.

21 Rose Weitz, “Living with the Stigma of AIDS:,” 32.

19

7 Kayla Carr felt unwelcome within these organizations. This led to another problem in gay AIDS organizations: their lack of inclusiveness.

Josh Gamson chronicled the problem of exclusiveness within the gay AIDS organization ACT UP. Gamson noted that, even though non-gay AIDS aspects were discussed in group meetings, little effort was put forth in assisting other demographics, e.g., intravenous drug users. Furthermore, Gamson asserted that ACT UP showed minimal desire or effort in recruiting non-gay members. Gamson also addressed a topic that is often ignored during discussions of gay AIDS activism: the exclusion amongst gays.26 The portrayal of the gay community was extremely skewed. The demographic of gay activists, ironically, mirrored that of the moral majority, white AngeloSaxon Protestants. In Kowalewksi’s discussion of double stigma within the gay community, Kowalewski noted the limitation and bias in his research because, of the twenty gay men he interview, only one was a minority, a Hispanic male.27 Moreover, Gamson noted that, among the members of ACT UP, there were very few African Americans or Hispanics.28 Aside from these internal problems that AIDS activists and gay activists faced, there were far greater, overarching issues with AIDS activism.

Anti-gay attitudes are still prevalent today, but public homophobia ran rampant during the AIDS epidemic. For instance, when a Houston mayoral candidate was asked how he would handle the growing AIDS problem in Houston, he jokingly answered “shoot the queers.”29 The emergence of AIDS allowed individuals with prior issues with gays to voice their homophobia. The Moral Majority spawned its own public figures like Jerry Fallwell and Anita Bryant.

Fallwell and Bryant both started antigay crusades. The most extreme of these antigay campaigns was the purposed legislative initiative to institute the death penalty for homosexual acts.30 Religion was a frequently

Josh Gamson, ”Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy:,” 356.

27 Mark R. Kowalewski, “DOUBLE STIGMA,” 214.

28 Josh Gamson, "Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy:,” 363.

29 Gregory M. Herek and Eric K. Glunt, “An epidemic of stigma: Public reactions to AIDS,” American Psychologist 43, no. 11 (1988): 889.

30 Thomas L. Long, AIDS and American Apocalypticism, 88.

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Continuous assertions that AIDS was a punishment from God were made by the radical, religious right. A Los Angeles Times poll showed that, between 1985 and 1987, an average of 26.3 percent of individuals believed AIDS was a punishment from God.31 Timothy F. Murphy discussed the topic at length in his article, “Is AIDS a Just Punishment.” He examined religion, a highly spiritual and conceptual topic, in a strict statistical manner. Murphy concluded that the divine punishment theory of AIDS was inapt.

He stated that religious leaders failed to prove, on the grounds of Utilitarian, Deontological and Natural Law theories that homosexuality was an amoral act deserving of punishment.32 Aside from the religious radicals and the moral majority, gay and AIDS activists encountered a far more menacing combatant: indifference.

During the AIDS epidemic, there were several proposed enemies identified by activists: price gouging drug companies, government inactiveness, and mass media that promoted gay and PWA stereotypes.33 However, the ambivalence Americans felt towards the AIDS epidemic and the gay community proved to be the greatest foe. The reason for the indifference towards AIDS is the distance that the American people felt between PWAs and themselves. Individuals in the gay community felt the same distance from AIDS, and one of Kowalewaski’s participants explained: I’m one of those people who deal with it indirectly, because it hasn’t hit home. I know what AIDS is, and I know how you can get it… It hasn’t hit a chord, but if a friend hit…I guess it would break up my little world; I think my crystal ball would crack, because it means it’s something I have to deal with. It’s not reality; it’s reality, but it’s unreal for me.34

26

Gregory M. Herek and Eric K. Glunt, “An epidemic of stigma:,” 890 32 T.F. Murphy, “Is AIDS a just punishment?” Journal of Medical Ethics 14 (1988): 159 33 Josh Gamson, "Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy:,” 359–360 34 Mark R. Kowalewski,“DOUBLE STIGMA,” 220 31

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In 1990, AIDS began to invade Americans’ everyday lives. The death toll had reached a staggering 100,000. These 100,000 persons had lost their lives to AIDS: young, old, gay, and straight. The demographic of the AIDS victim began to change, and AIDS was spreading at an inconceivable rate. More Americans’ crystal balls were being scattered; people lost friends, family, and co-workers. M. Kent Jennings and Ellen Ann Andersen elaborated on this phenomenon in their article, “The Importance of Social and Political Context.” Through statistical analysis of a survey of participants in the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington, D.C., the researchers concluded that personal tragedies, like the death of a loved one, were the driving force behind rank-and-file activists’ continued commitment to the cause.35 Death became the great equalizer. As the death toll rose, attitudes towards gays and AIDS began to change. More importantly, the AIDS epidemic caused tremendous changes within the gay community.

Prior to the AIDS epidemic, the gay community was fueled by sex, and promiscuity was the nature of gay culture. AIDS created an atmosphere of caution and fear, so gays became more conservative and cautious in their sexual habits. One gay man commented: I guess first of all, if I have sex, its safe sex.

And second of all, prior to the AIDS problem, I think everyone was freer about going home with people and doing what they wanted to…I guess there’s just not as much free sex anymore.36 Moreover, as a result of the AIDS, many homosexual began to seek more monogamous relationships: …That’s one reason—this is a terrible thing to say—that’s one good reason to stay in a relationship. Maybe I moved into a relationship a lot more quickly because of that fact. It was a good time to get into a relationship, because of the threat of AIDS.37

The AIDS epidemic gave the gay community an immense amount of visibility. The gay community became more visible, partly, because AIDS forced closeted homosexuals to come out. Several gays were forced from the closet by their diagnosis, because during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, gays were predominantly infected. Thus, a male’s diagnosis with AIDS was synonymous with one’s homosexuality. AIDS activism also helped garner the gay community visibility. Prominent gay and AIDS activist leader Larry Kramer stated: I am sick of closeted gays…It’s 1983 already, guys, when are you going to come out? By 1984 you could be dead. Every gay man who is unable to come forward now and fight to save his own life is truly helping to kill the rest of us. There is only one thing that’s going to save some of us, and this is numbers…As more and more of my friends die, I have less sympathy for men who are afraid their mommies will find out…38 Gay and AIDS activists also helped alter the image of the homosexual male. Many of the gay AIDS activists captured in newspapers and on the television screen did not resemble the stereotypical, effeminate gay male. The public was shown that homosexuals come in different shapes, sizes, and creeds. Younger gays were able to idolize these masculine role models who were fighting, not only for AIDS victims, but also for gay rights. Gay AIDS activists constantly pushed boundaries and stretched the general public’s idea of social norms.

Gay and AIDS activists utilized anger and aggression, which later became a part of gay culture and future AIDS activism. Kiki Mason’s “I am someone with AIDS and I want to live by any means necessary” exemplified this change in the gay community. Mason displayed his frustration in his statement: This is my message to everyone with AIDS: If you think the end is near, take someone with you. Hold the president of a drug company hostage. Splatter your blood across the desk of a politician. Trash an AIDS researcher's

Aside from relations, the AIDS epidemic also effected the gay community in various ways.

Kent M. Jennings and Ellen Ann Andersen, “The importance of social and political context:,” 188.

36 Mark R. Kowalewski, “DOUBLE STIGMA,” 215.

37 Mark R. Kowalewski, “DOUBLE STIGMA,” 215.

35

38

Thomas L. Long, AIDS and American Apocalypticism, 89–90.

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home…Do it so they'll know what it's like to have your life ripped apart.39 Although, Mason’s call for violence was hyperbole, the message conveyed was still powerful because Mason utilized his rage.

In conclusion, the first decade of the AIDS epidemic caused a dynamic change in American history and culture. The gay community, however, experienced the most tremendous changes due to AIDS. The gay community was nearly decimated by the AIDS epidemic, but the adversity it faced helped define the identity of the gay community. Michel Foucault, a French philosopher, asserted that marginalized groups that rebel against a certain stigma or label, like homosexuals, must first rally around the label, which requires an initial acceptance of the label.40 Thus, the AIDS epidemic did not merely alter the gay community; rather, it created the gay community.

AUTHOR BIO: My name is Seabastian Micheal-Shane Jones. I am eighteen years old, and I am a sophomore here at East Carolina University. I was originally born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but I ended up in North Carolina by way of Hurricane Katrina. I am currently a Biology major and aspiring astrobiologist. If that career path doesn’t work, I plan on becoming a struggling writer.

Kiki Mason, “I am someone with AIDS and I want to live by any means necessary” POZ Magazine, June–July 1994, http://www.actupny.org/diva/CBnecessary.html, (accessed April 7, 2014).

40 Josh Gamson, “Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy:” 358.

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Bibliography PRIMARY SOURCES Bayer, Ronald, and Gerald M. Oppenheimer. AIDS doctors: voices from the epidemic. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Mason, Kiki. “I am someone with AIDS and I want to live by any means necessary.” POZ Magazine, June-July 1994. http://www.actupny.org/diva/CBnecessary.html.

Shilts, Randy. And the band played on: People, politics, and the AIDS epidemic. New York: St. Martins Press, 1987.

United States. Congress.House.Committee on Government Operations.Intergovernmental Relations and Human Resources Subcommittee. 1983. Federal response to AIDS: Hearings before a subcommittee of the

committee on government operations, house of representatives, ninety-eighth congress, first session, august 1 and 2, 1983. Washington: U.S. G.P.O, 1983.

SECONDARY SOURCES Gamson, Josh. "Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy: AIDS Activism and Social Movement ‘Newness.’" Social Problems 36, no. 4 (1989): 351–367.

Gilman, Sander L. "AIDS and syphilis: The iconography of disease." October (1987): 87–107.

Herek, Gregory M., and Eric K. Glunt. "An epidemic of stigma: Public reactions to AIDS." American Psychologist 43, no. 11 (1988): 886–891.

Jennings, M. Kent, and Ellen Ann Andersen. “The importance of social and political context: The case of AIDS activism.” Political Behavior 25, no. 2 (2003): 177–99.

Kelly, St Lawrence, Smith Jr, Hood, and Donna J. Cook. "Stigmatization of AIDS patients by physicians." American Journal of Public Health 77, no. 7 (1987): 789–791.

Kowalewski, Mark R. "DOUBLE STIGMA AND BOUNDARY MAINTENANCE How Gay Men Deal with AIDS." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 17, no. 2 (1988): 211–228.

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Murphy, T. F. “Is AIDS a just punishment?” Journal of Medical Ethics 14, no. 3 (1988): 154–160.

Weitz, Rose. "Living with the stigma of AIDS." Qualitative Sociology 13, no. 1 (1990): 23–38.

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Goblin Market: An Allegory for Addiction Shealyn Pike Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti is a colorful epic

poem that depicts a story of a girl that submits to the temptation of sin from the ‘goblin men’, and purchases the forbidden fruit with a lock of her ‘golden hair’.

Laura and her sister, Lizzie, are being tantalized by the goblin men, with the constantly alluring offers to ‘Come buy, come buy’ their delicious fruits, but only “curious Laura chose to linger” (Rossetti 67). Lizzie tries to warn her that, “Their offers should not charm us, their evil gifts would harm us” (Rossetti 65-66). As commonly known, and support by Jennifer Hudock’s poetry analysis, Goblin Market is most often read as a cautionary tale for the sexual temptations that women must resist. Although I do agree this could be used as an allegory for the sexual temptation of men, the progressive change in Laura’s behaviors, her decline her mental and physical wellbeing, the effects of her sins, and her journey through addiction, and the road to recovery with the help of her sister, work perfectly as an allegory for addiction.

Kay Marie Porterfield’s reference handbook,

Focus on Addiction, aims to provide information and

facts about “the spectrum of behaviors connected with addiction (that) is broken into five types by some addiction specialists: patterns, habits, compulsions, impulse control disorders, and addiction” (2); as well as their cognitive and emotional effects. She also describes the different methods to recovery and the effects that the journey of an addict has on their friends, family, and home life, as well as they ones they have one the addict. The behavioral, social, and emotional patterns of addiction that Porterfield describes, serve as valid evidence to support the thesis that Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti, could be used as an allegory for any form of addiction or compulsive disorder. Not-only does she provide neurological facts about addiction, in addition to the physical effects of addiction, she portrays the mental obsession, or romance, the addict has with the drug, substance, or action of choice.

From the beginning of the poem, the reader sees the difference between Lizzie and Laura, so that one character is a foil for the other, to display the choice factor of addiction and giving into the temptation of any harmful substance or behavior. Rossetti puts this

plainly by saying, “One may lead a horse to water, twenty could not make him drink” (422-423), and more descriptively when she describes Lizzie’s resistance to the goblin. Gene M. Heyman, in his book Addiction: A Disorder of Choice, illustrates how addictions of any kind “ depends on general principals of choice, the unique behavioral effects of addictive drugs, and individual and environmental factors that affect decision making” (116). This supports the claim that Laura made an individual choice to “take their gifts both choice and many, and ate their fruits and wore their flowers” (149-150). This initial taste, attained by her own will, of the forbidden fruit, strapped her in for her ride around the vicious cycle of addiction.

From my research on addiction in psychology classes, studying Narcotics and Alcohol Anonymous meetings, as well as countless personal conversations I have had with the addicts that I met during my studies, I have learned that when an addict discovers his drug of choice, he falls in love. When Laura first tastes tasted the fruit, “she sucked until her lips were sore” (Rossetti 136). Addicts develop a romance with addiction when they become obsessed with the substance or behavior.

Later they may even develop an impulse control disorder, which is known as either addiction processes or process additions in the addiction treatment field (Porterfield 179). Porterfield defines this disorder more simply by explaining that, “We as human beings, tend to learn to do things that make us feel better. The more pleasure we feel right after we do something, the more we want to do it again, especially if the negative consequences of our behaviors do not happen right away.” (180). Rossetti portrays the same behavioral patterns in Laura throughout the poem. As soon as she tastes the “fruits which that unknown orchard bore” (135), it did not matter what the consequences were or how many times she was warned against it, she could not get enough. She cried, “I ate and ate my mouth fill, yet my mouth waters still” (Rossetti 166-167), which provides a clear example of the vicious cycle of addiction that rotates around the addict’s ‘quick fix’; this can be anything that relieves anxiety or makes us feel good and becomes the basis for impulse control disorders (Porterfield 180). Her mental obsession and

104 impulse control disorder began to take a toll on Laura’s personality, interests, and physical health.

The different types of effects addiction has on the addict, and the patterns of behavioral changes they go through are common among addicts of all kinds. As Porterfield asserts that “it is important to understand that although people can be addicted to different things or have different compulsive behaviors, they share some similar patterns – no matter what their substance or behavior or choice” (xi). Krystal and Raskin cite A. Ludwig for his accurate description of many of these patterns by stating that: addiction causes (1) changes in mental processes and thinking that were caused by a disturbance in concentration, attention, and judgment.

(2) Disturbs time sense, which allowed for an immediate escape into pleasurable states that can be enjoyed by ignoring the negative effects. (3) Loss of self-control. (4) Changes in emotional expressiveness, or detachment from emotions and loved ones. Lastly, (5) Body image changes (qtd. in Heyman 75-79).

Laura’s mental processes and interests rapidly shifted throughout the poem; starting from her curiosity that sparked the new ‘mental romance’ with the succulent fruits from the goblin men, to developing the many aspects addiction “[Laura] in an absent dream”…

“Longing for the night” (Rossetti 211, 14), begins to detach from reality; she loses her interest in everyday activities, that women were expected to do. “She no more swept the house”….”But sat down listless in the chimney-nook and would not eat” (Rossetti 293, 98).

Her mental processes shift to revolve around the fruit, just like the behaviors of an addict’s towards their drug of choice. Laura begins to obsess over the fruit, and consumes her thoughts and interests with finding them, so Laura “Loitered still among the rushes” (Rossetti 226), “Listening ever, but not catching the customary cry, ‘Come buy, come by,’ with its iterated jingle of sugar-baited words: Not for all her watching once discerning even one goblin” (Rossetti 230-256).

Laura’s patterns of thought and desperate behaviors to find the fruits coincide with Porterfield’s patterns of dependency of addicts. One being, “obsessively planting their lives around the substance or behavior, being preoccupied with it often, and being willing to do almost anything to get that substance or behavior” (6).

Though her mind was lustful and uneasy, her hunger was left unsatisfied.

Laura could no long find the goblin’s witch such pleasurable substance so, “Day after day, night after night, Laura kept watch in vain. In sullen silence of

The Lookout exceeding pain. She never caught the goblin cry, ‘Come buy, come buy” (Rossetti 269-73). Through an addictive lens this quote, “Poor Laura could not hear; longed to buy fruit to comfort her” (Rossetti 309-10), along with many others in Goblin Market, can be seen as some of the withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, chills, vomiting, shakes, insomnia, depression, and many more, that Porterfield describes for the various forms of addiction. Rossetti explains that withdrawals can be physical, mental, or emotional, depending on the person and their addiction. Laura is already experiencing cognitive changes because of the fruit, but now that she is unable to feed her addiction, ‘exceeding pain’ she feels can her physical withdrawal symptoms from the absence of the fruit. Another physical effect that Laura is suffering is a decline in youth and life.

Rossetti shows this when she states, “She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn to swift decay and burn her fire away” (Rossetti 277-280). Her description of Laura’s decay is a beautiful example of how addiction drains the personality and emotions of a person, as well as the often-fatal consequences that they may result in.

To avoid the undesirable outcomes to addiction, Lizzie had to put herself at risk to obtain the fruits for her sister and aid her in recovery. The help of support groups, especially family, is a common successful tactic for recovering from addiction. Just like for Laura, addicts find “Life out of death” (525) in recovery. In the N.A and A.A meeting I attended, the support groups often sharing stories to help other people learn from other people mistakes and experiences, just like Laura went on to tell her story so that others can learn from them.

Succinctly, Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market is a tale of two sisters faced with temptation,

but only ‘Curious Laura’ falls to the overwhelmingly enticing appeal of the goblin’s forbidden fruit.

Although these fruits are usually depicted as an allegory for the sexual temptation that women must resist from men, Laura’s attraction, behaviors of obsession and compulsion, the symptoms, and the side effects from her love affair with the fruits of the devil, creates a beautiful allegory of addiction. Kay Marie Porterfield’s reference book, Focus on Addiction, gives clear useful evidence for this thesis, as well as the other sources I have referenced, and many more. All of her behaviors and actions can be seen through an addictive lens; she shows the progression and triggers for addiction, the almost tragic consequence of compulsive behavior, and most importantly, the silver lining, that you always have a choice, even when it is the choice to recover.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Shealyn Pike is an undergraduate

student in her senior year at East Carolina University. She is a double major in English and Psychology, with a certificate in business and technical communications. Over the summer, Shealyn spend six weeks in Heredia, Costa Rica studying the Spanish language and costarican, or ‘tico’ culture. During her junior year, she worked as a teacher’s assistant for Dr. Michael Baker’s Introduction Psychology course at ECU. In her free time, she enjoys writing creative nonfiction memoirs, travel narratives, and blogs. Her most recent public blog can be found at http://puravidaticas.blogspot.com.

Works Cited Heyman, Gene M. Addiction: A Disorder of Choice. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2009. Print.

Hudock, Jennifer. "Poetry Analysis: Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti." Helium. Blog. 18 Feb. 2008. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Krystal, Henry, and Herbert Raskin. Drug Dependence: Aspects of Ego Function. Detroit, Wayne State UP, 1970. Print.

Porterfield, Kay Marie. Focus on Addiction. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1992. Print.

Rossetti, Christina. Goblin Market. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. E: The Age. Ed. Julia Reidhead. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 1496-1508. Print.

Victorian

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The Lookout