The McNair Scholars Journal of the University of Washington
Volume XIV Autumn 2014
THE MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL University of Washington
McNair Program Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity University of Washington 171 Mary Gates Hall Box 352803 Seattle, WA 98195-2803
[email protected] http://depts.washington.edu/uwmcnair/
The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program operates as a part of TRiO Programs, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Cover Photo by Mark Bennett, UW McNair Scholar Edited by Brooke Cassell, Graduate Student Advisor
University of Washington McNair Program Staff 2013-2014 Program Director Gabriel Gallardo, Ph.D. Associate Director Gene Kim, Ph.D. Program Coordinator Rosa Ramirez Graduate Student Advisors Brooke Cassell Jorge Martínez McNair Scholars’ Research Mentors Dr. William Atkins, Medicinal Chemistry Dr. Mary Lou Balassone, Social Work Dr. Katie Davis, Information School Dr. David S. Ginger, Chemistry Dr. Angela Ginorio, Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies; Psychology Dr. Chris Hague, Pharmacology Dr. Stevan Harrell, Anthropology; Environmental and Forest Sciences Dr. David Hertzog, Physics Dr. Habiba Ibrahim, English Dr. Ralina Joseph, Communication Dr. Patricia Kramer, Anthropology Dr. Kyung-Soon Lee,Pharmacology Dr. Mary Lidstrom, Office of Research; Chemical Engineering Dr. N. Cecilia Martinez-Gomez, Microbiology; Chemical Engineering Dr. Katie McLaughlin, Psychology Dr. Biren “Ratnesh” Nagda, Social Work Dr. Christopher Neils, Bioengineering Dr. Andrea Ogston, Oceanography Dr. Devon Peña, Anthropology; American Ethnic Studies Dr. Deepa Rao, Global Health Dr. Jennifer Wacker-Mhyre, Pharmacology Dr. Bruce Weir, Biostatistics
Volume XIV Copyright 2014
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From the Vice President and Vice Provost for Diversity One of the great delights of higher education is that it provides young scholars an opportunity to pursue research in a field that interests and engages them. The McNair Scholars Program offers support and opportunity for students to pursue scholarly research, and The McNair Scholars Journal plays an important part in that support by publishing their results. The Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity is pleased to publish the fourteenth edition of The McNair Scholars Journal of the University of Washington. The McNair Scholars Program offers opportunities to a diverse group of students—students who may not otherwise get the chance to work closely with a faculty mentor on in-depth research. The young scholars who participate in the McNair program are among the most motivated and dedicated undergraduates at the UW. Their hard work and accomplishments put them in a position to succeed in graduate school. The McNair Scholars Journal plays an important part in the career of these young scholars by publishing their research at an early stage. Please join me in thanking the faculty, staff, and students who came together and made this journal possible. Sheila Edwards Lange, Ph.D. Vice President for Minority Affairs Vice Provost for Diversity
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From the Director I am very pleased to present the fourteenth edition of the University of Washington’s McNair Scholars Journal to our reading audience. The collective excellence of these projects is a testament to the hard work of our students and the unwavering support of faculty mentors who supervised these projects. As always, I want to extend my gratitude to the faculty, whose guidance and support has allowed our students to grow in meaningful ways, while giving our scholars the foundation to enter graduate school with confidence and solid research experience. The McNair Program at the University of Washington strives to create meaningful academic experiences that will enable our students to succeed at the next level. The research component for McNair Scholars has two specific goals: First, engage students in the research enterprise at the undergraduate level so they develop the analytical and methodological skills, academic sophistication, and confidence that will make them successful students in graduate school. Second, provide students a unique opportunity to publish their undergraduate research, so the scholars gain an early understanding of the critical role that publishing will play in their academic careers. In this respect, the McNair Journal is a key component in the preparation of our scholars for careers in research and teaching. Our journal involves the work of several people who work behind the scenes proofreading, editing, and preparing the final draft for publication. I would like to extend my appreciation to the UW McNair staff, Dr. Gene Kim, Associate Director, Rosa Ramirez, Program Coordinator, and our graduate student staff, Brooke Cassell and Jorge Martínez, for their commitment to the McNair mission and for bringing this project to completion. They are an asset to the program and have been instrumental in preparing this high quality journal. On behalf of the entire McNair Staff, I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading the fourteenth edition of the McNair Scholars Journal. Dr. Gabriel E. Gallardo Director, McNair Program Associate Vice President, Office of Minority Affairs
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From the Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School The disciplines, interests and pursuits that inspired the research papers within this journal are as diverse and impressive as the McNair Scholars who produced them. By reading these works, you will quickly see that our next generation of leaders and innovators is right here at the University of Washington. As you know, the McNair Scholars Program supports traditionally underrepresented students in their undergraduate programs and prepares and encourages them to pursue graduate study. At the UW, we know that earning advanced degrees will propel these scholars into positions of influence within academic institutions, communities and businesses throughout our state, nation and world. For this reason, the UW Graduate School is honored to partner with the McNair Scholars Program and the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. Clearly, these scholars already have the curiosity, intelligence and ambition that are essential to identifying emerging problems and finding innovative answers. Through graduate education, they will gain the additional experience, expertise and knowledge they will need for a lifetime of discovery and leadership. Congratulations to the scholars whose work is published here and thank you to the faculty, staff and graduate student mentors who have contributed to this journal and to the success of the UW McNair Scholars Program. Your commitment has contributed to a legacy of outstanding scholars. David L. Eaton Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
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Journal Disclaimer While the McNair Program Staff has made every effort to assure a high degree of accuracy, rigor and quality in the content of this journal, the interpretations and conclusions found within each essay are those of the authors alone and not the McNair Program. Any errors or omission are strictly the responsibility of each author.
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THE MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL of the University of Washington Volume XIV Autumn 2014 Qualitative Analysis of HIV Stigma in Seattle’s African Born 1 Population Misghana Andemichael
Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy
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Zoraida Arias
Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates
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Amanda D. Cortez
Rumination as a Mediator between Childhood Adversity and Depression or Anxiety
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Prysilla De La Torre
Ultrasound Imaging Systems: Improving Design and Usage
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Jorge C. Fernandez
Fast and Furious: Rapid Urbanization in Pi County
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Philmon Haile
Using Self-Assembled Monolayers to Vary Open-Circuit Voltage and Built-In Voltage in Polymer:Fullerene Solar Cells
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Anthony Hall
Characterizing the PDZ-Binding Motif of Serotonin Receptors in vitro
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Dorathy-Ann Harris
Re-Imagining Identities: Racial and Ethnic Discourses within Seattle’s Habesha Community
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Azeb Madebo
Wearable Computing: Designing a Solution to Enhance User Interactions Kendall Morgan
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Pyridine Nucleotides: Small Molecules with a Big Impact on Carbon Distribution in Methylotrophs
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Sandy Nguyen
Maturation of Nanodiscs to HDL-like Particles via LecithinCholesterol Acyl Transferase
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Chinonso C. Opara
Human Energetic Expenditure: The Effects of Gradient and Burden on Walking in Real World Environments
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Megan J. Rue
Unraveling the Complexity: Contributions of Common and Rare Genomic Variants in Autoimmune Diseases
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Lisa Stuart
Effects of the Elwha Dam Removals on the Carbon Cycle: Tracking Particulate Organic Carbon in the Nearshore Environment
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Sarra Tekola
Exploring the Experiences of Informal Caregivers of Cancer Patients
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Riabelle Vivas
Detector Design Studies of Silicon Photomultipliers and Lead Fluoride Crystals for the New Muon g-2 Experiment Kazimir Wall
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Qualitative Analysis of HIV Stigma in Seattle’s African Born Population Misghana Andemichael Abstract The prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) cases in the African-born national population versus the African American or national population in general is notably high (Othieno, 2007). In Washington state, there are approximately four times more HIV cases for the foreign-born black male versus the African American black male along with about eleven times more HIV cases for the foreign-born black female compared to their African American female counterpart. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the final stage of HIV infection ("What Is HIV/AIDS?" 2014). Stigma can impact medication adherence, quality of treatment and undiagnosed contributing mental disorders that, when treated, can improve one’s HIV status. However, little is known about how HIV stigma impacts the treatment and intervention outcomes for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) in the African-born population. The Deepa Rao lab, as well as my individual role in this research project, aims to analyze the nature of HIV stigma among this population, which will provide fundamentals of an intervention that is most ideal for the African-born population. The Rao lab conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with African-born patients receiving treatment at Harborview Medical Center Madison HIV Clinic and those receiving social service at BABES YWCA network, and then I as a primary coder analyzed the data through ATLAS.ti, analytic software. Results indicate there are significant trends that implicate the HIV status of individuals in this population on a community and individual level. The Rao lab will use my analysis as a supplement to their long term study analyzing the application of HIV stigma intervention on a sample of the Seattle African-born PLWH population. Introduction Stigma is defined as a process of devaluation where one is designated by other members of society to possess a discrediting attribute to their identity (Stutterheim, et al. 2012). People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) experience negative symptoms that have critical consequences to their route of treatment. Symptoms that PLWH face include “avoidance, exclusion, rejection, social ostracism, blaming, violence, physical distance, indifference and awkward social interaction” (Stutterheim, et al. 2012). Internalization of the stigma is common and
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL this can result in depression, which can reduce their efficiency in completing tasks; especially, tasks that are critical to their HIV/AIDS condition. Places where social support systems are typically found for a person not diagnosed with HIV are areas where PLWH will experience these negative symptoms of stigma. “HIV diagnosis rates in [the Africanborn] population are six times higher than estimated incidence in the general US population” (Blanas 2013). Motifs that can provide context to this statistical trend include how they are socially stratified, the racism they face and the obstacles they face navigating HIV/AIDS care services. Methodology A qualitative study was conducted that entailed one-on-one semi-structured interviews with African-born PLWH patients at Harborview Madison Clinic and BABES Network YWCA. Harborview Madison Clinic is a care provider facility specially designed for PLWH patients in terms of medicine and social services. BABES Network YWCA is a place for support and peer education for women living with HIV along with mental health therapy. This study received Institutional Review Board (IRB) as well as University of Washington ethical review boards’ approval. Eligibility requirements of interviewees were the following: 1. PLWH status; 2. underwent diagnosis; 3. over 18 years of age; 4. born in an African country; and 5. speak English at a conversational level. Research subjects were recruited by the care providers of the separate locations, who assessed whether their eligible patients were interested in participating. At Madison, a research nurse identified eligible participants from a research registry. She called potential participants, and those who were interested came in for an interview. Similarly, at BABES, a peer identified potential participants and made calls, and those who were interested came in for an interview. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. There was also a sociodemographic questionnaire that was reported on a separate sheet, and this information was kept separate from the substantive interview data. At this point in the methods, I began participating in data analysis. Data were analyzed through a topic coding approach where sections of transcripts were identified with codes that targeted motifs of particular themes prevalent throughout all data collected. Results Demographic information was tabulated for all participants. There were thirteen interviewees; seven were male while six were female. More than half of the participants in this study have known their diagnosis for at least five years (Figure 1). Both genders are represented
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Qualitative Analysis of HIV Stigma in Seattle’s African Born Population in each of the different age categories in this sample. Of participants who are in their thirties, there is an equal distribution of both genders. For those who are in their forties, sixty percent are female and forty percent are male, while in the fifties category, thirty three percent are female and sixty six percent are male (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Decade in which participants received their initial HIV diagnosis.
Female Male Figure 2. Gender distribution of the participants in each of the different categories that characterize their age.
Trends in PLWH Stigma Topographic coding resulted in the identification of trends at both the community and the individual levels. Each of these levels of
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL stigma revealed patterns leading to increased isolation and stigma experienced by the individual. Community Level Trends At the community level, the limited integration of the African community in Seattle often leads to the experience of stress in the PLWH individual. This can result to the individual experiencing fear of their community. This fear, in turn, can lead to self-induced stigma by the PLWH individual in relation to how their community perceives PLWH (Figure 3). Limited integration to African community in Seattle
Stress in result of rampant fear of community
Induced Self Stigma
Figure 3. Flow chart illustrates a trend prevalent in African born PLWH population sample influenced by community perspective and knowledge of HIV/AIDS.
Individual Level Trends At the individual level, a participant’s relationships within their close family/friend network highly influence the level of their disclosure with that network. To what degree they choose to disclose to separate parties of this network is dependent on a multitude of factors; examples include how they were raised and traumatic events within the family/friend network. These different forms of disclosure result in the individual burdening themselves with the responsibility of obtaining and coping with status in an isolated environment (Figure 4).
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Qualitative Analysis of HIV Stigma in Seattle’s African Born Population
Traumatizing event in family/friend network
Family/friend history of HIV
Hidden disclosure of status with family
Limited forms of disclosure due to fear of being ousted
Isolation from family/friend network
Burden self with the responsibility of obtaining status and coping with status in an isolated environment
Figure 4. Flow chart visualizes the different ways African born PLWH individuals disclose of their status to others, especially their family, and the implications of their disclosure status.
Conclusion In comparison to the general US population, the African-born population has a significantly higher proportion of HIV cases (Blanas 2013). Through this study, the Rao lab aimed to gain a clearer understanding of potential, effective models of intervention for HIV stigma this population faces. This study has given insight to motifs concerning HIV stigma that are prevalent in the Seattle African born PLWH population. Results show the categorization of factors that play a role in the implications of stigma that they are faced on an individual and community level. Contextual information concerning the community
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL network of separate African-born populations is significant in understanding the influence of community opinion on an individual. “African traditional religions provide their own specific vision of life which is intimately connected with other areas of human experience and therefore directs substantially the intelligence, emotions and existence of individuals within their respective communities” (Mezzana 2002). In Seattle, each African-born community has several if not one religious congregation center that a majority of the population participates in ("African Traditional Religions and Modernity" 2014). Traditional weddings between members of an African-born community are another place where a significant proportion of the population congregates. Isolation due to PLWH stigma, whether initiated at the community or individual level, from these types of important community events could have other long-lasting effects on the PLWH individual. This study is laying the foundation for future work to be done concerning the nature of HIV stigma this population faces and identifies important factors to consider when developing an intervention model targeted to this population. References "African Traditional Religions and Modernity." African Traditional Religions and Modernity. Web. 05 Aug. 2014. Blanas, Demetri, Kim Nichols, Mulusew Bekele, Amanda Lugg, Roxanne Kerani, and Carol Horowitz. "HIV/AIDS Among African-Born Residents in the United States." J Immigrant Minor Health 15.4 (2013): 718-24. NIH Public Access. Web. 17 Jan. 2014. . Mezzana, Daniele, "African Traditional Religions and Modernity." African Traditional Religions and Modernity. Web. 05 Aug. 2014. Othieno, Joan. "Understanding How Contextual Realities Affect African Born Immigrants and Refugees Living with HIV in Accessing Care in the Twin Cities." J Health Care Poor Underserved. 18.3 (2007): 170-88. Project Muse, 2007. Web. 17 Jan. 2014. Stutterheim, Sarah, Arjan Bos, Iris Shiripinda, Marijn Bruin, John Pryor, and Herman Schaalma. "HIV-related Stigma in African and Afro-Caribbean Communities in the Netherlands: Manifestations, Consequences and Coping." Psychology and Health 27.4 (2012): 395-411. Taylor and Francis Online. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
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Qualitative Analysis of HIV Stigma in Seattle’s African Born Population "What Is HIV/AIDS?" What Is HIV/AIDS? US Department of Health and Human Services. Web. 03 Aug. 2014.
Acknowledgments I, Misghana Andemichael, want to formally thank my faculty mentor, Dr. Deepa Rao, and her research coordinator, Meheret Endeshaw, for allowing me to be a contributing member to the Rao laboratory group. Lastly, I want to thank the UW ALVA GenOM Project and Ronald E. McNair program for their support. Misghana Andemichael Biochemistry, Global Health, Dr. Deepa Rao
[email protected] I am pursuing a joint MD/PhD Program with a focus in medical anthropology, medical sociology or public health with a focus on community health.
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy Zoraida Arias Abstract
Domestic violence, defined here as violent or aggressive behavior from one intimate partner to another, is one of the prime contributors of female homicides, known as femicide. Between 20052013, 1,042 women were reported murdered in Italy, an increase from 84 to 134 victims per year. My research analyzes women inequality in Italy by focusing on how domestic violence and femicide have been interpreted and portrayed to the Italian public. I pose the following question: In what ways have literature and media sources portrayed and/or helped raise awareness on women’s rights issues in Italy, specifically regarding domestic violence and femicide? This research is salient because most research focuses solely on developing countries, but when it comes to women’s rights, all countries including Italy are affected. In order to explore the relationship between intimate partner violence and femicide, I use synthesis and comparison of Michael Johnson’s Typology of Domestic Violence with other literature and social media. First, I analyze Johnson’s interpretation of intimate partner violence. Then I compare his interpretation with my findings on the ways literature and media sources portray domestic violence and femicide to the Italian public. Finally, I combine these sources to formulate my own interpretation of domestic violence and femicide. My hypothesis that cultural acceptance of gender inequality in Italy has contributed to domestic violence becoming a major factor in femicide is supported by my analysis. An unexpected outcome of this study, and a subject for future research, is the discovery that both domestic violence and femicide have multiple definitions and interpretations and can be applied to situations other than that of a one man-one woman intimate relationship. Much of this research has been conducted in Italy and from Italian sources; therefore, I translated most of the literature into English. Introduction Violence against women is a global concern. Much of the violence occurs at home and, more often than not, goes unreported. I believe that domestic violence and femicide are major issues that need to be addressed in order to help raise international awareness. Here, I define the term “femicide”, as the act of a male intimate partner, resulting in the murder of his female partner, and define “domestic violence” as violent
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL or aggressive behavior from one intimate partner to another. This year alone in Italy, 75% of female murders have been perpetrated by their intimate partners, including husbands, boyfriends, and ex-partners (Nadeau, 2013, 1). Female victims have not only been burned alive, but they have been shot, stabbed, strangled, and even thrown off balconies (Nadeau, 2013, 2). Femicide and domestic violence are still unfortunately highly misunderstood and tolerated in male-dominated countries such as Italy. This can be seen in Nadeau’s article, which mentions how in Diana Russell’s book, Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing, Russell states how the issue of femicide is highly tolerated in countries such as Spain and Italy (Nadeau, 2013; 2). Though women’s rights organizations such as Casa Delle Donne have tried to raise awareness on these issues to the Italian public by conducting research on femicide and providing women with services, there is still much to be done in order to see significant changes in the public’s perception on this topic. Italy’s view on gender equality is mirrored through its current laws, customs and values regarding women. As Italy is culturally a patriarchal society, it can be challenging to make societal changes to prevent more women from being abused or killed. Sadly, a woman is still expected to be submissive as the male is often seen as the head of the household. It seems as though a woman asserting her rights may decrease “the power her intimate partner has over her, resulting in him behaving irrational, often violently” towards her (Nadeau, 2013; 2). In her article on femicide and domestic violence, Nadeau explains how unfortunately, many women who are victims of domestic violence fear or are ashamed of seeking help, and that even with laws meant to protect them from domestic violence, women still feel like they have no access to help (Nadeau, 2013, 1). I believe that women who are victims of the most extreme form of domestic violence are likely to be in danger of being homicide victims. My research analyzes women inequality in Italy by focusing on how domestic violence and femicide are portrayed to the Italian public. My research synthesizes and compares different methods of interpreting domestic violence and femicide, with a focus on intimate partner violence. The goal of my research is to help raise international awareness of how these issues are interpreted and portrayed to the public as well as to provide my own analysis of these issues. I claim that there should be an increased focus on human rights violations such as domestic violence and femicide due to their strong influence on gender inequality. Through this research, I attempt to
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy answer the question: In what ways have literature and media sources portrayed and/or helped raise awareness on women’s rights issues in Italy, specifically regarding domestic violence and femicide? The view of the woman as unequal has wide-reaching implications, only one of which is the result of domestic violence and female homicides. I hypothesize that due to cultural acceptance of domestic abuse, women’s right to be completely free of violence are not acknowledged; nonetheless, literature and media sources have tried to increase awareness both locally and internationally through their own interpretations. I anticipate that my research will help raise awareness on the current domestic violence and femicide issues in Italy, and I strongly believe that in the future there will be an increase of well-informed individuals. Through my research, I aim to elucidate different ways to understand these issues in the hopes that individuals might partake in the prevention of domestic abuse, which might, in turn, also raise awareness on decreasing femicide issues. Materials and Methods Books I read, analyzed and compared five published books: 1. Ferite a morte (Wounded to Death) by Serena Dandini et al, 2. Questo non è amore (This is not love. Twenty stories telling of domestic violence on women) by Giovanna Pezzuoli et al, 3. Con la scusa dell’amore (With the excuse of love) by Giulia Bongiorno and Michelle Hunziker, 4. I labirinti del male (The labyrinths of evil) by Rosella Diaz et al. and 5. Typology of Domestic Violence by Michael Johnson. All books were written in Italian except Typology of Domestic Violence, which was written in English. I used the methods of comparative literature as well as identification of emerging themes for my qualitative research. Because I was dealing with literature from two different countries, with two different linguistic and national groups, comparative literature was the best technique for obtaining my research materials, as I was able to acquire more information by using the Italian language. The technique of using emerging themes such as femicide, domestic violence, murder, and female victim, made it simpler to find the data required for my comparative literature research. I have also compiled various online literary articles including newspaper articles and research articles from Casa Delle Donne, a women’s rights organization. In particular, I have used media sources such as Italian television shows, short films and interviews, which I have accessed through YouTube. I have also attained
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL information through the women’s rights organization Women Against Violence Europe. Videos and Films Authentic Italian films that portray the issues of domestic violence and femicide are rare and difficult to locate. Therefore, I utilized an Italian television show, “Amore Criminale” (Criminal Love), which specifically focuses on informing and portraying domestic violence and femicide issues to the Italian public. I also analyzed YouTube videos that serve as examples of how domestic violence and femicide issues are portrayed in the Italian official and popular media. Articles and Women’s Rights Organizations To gain a deeper understanding of how these issues are portrayed to the Italian public, I researched domestic violence and femicide statistics through the women’s rights organization Casa Delle Donne and the feminist network Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE). Casa Delle Donne assists women with legal, psychological, medical, and employment help as it continues trying to prevent further domestic violence and femicide issues in Italy. WAVE is an informal network of European women’s non-governmental organizations working in the field of combating violence against women and children. Through online research, I was also able to understand how media sources, such as local and national newspaper articles, portrayed these issues to the Italian public. I reviewed three newspaper articles and synthesized the themes within them. Findings and Discussion Part One: Michael Johnson’s interpretation of intimate partner violence To better comprehend the issue of domestic violence, we must first recognize that this term has various characterizations and that many individuals interpret it differently. Michael Johnson’s Typology of Domestic Violence: Intimate Terrorism, Violent Resistance, and Situational Couple Violence seeks to consider what the public knows and does not know about different types of partner violence in intimate relationships. Though his typology focuses on the four types of intimate partner violence described in the book’s title, for the purpose of this study I will only concentrate on intimate terrorism (Table 1).
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy Table 1. Michael Johnson’s definitions of four types of domestic violence (Johnson 6).
Types of Domestic Violence Intimate Terrorism: The individual is violent and controlling. The partner is not. Violent Resistance: It is the partner who is violent and controlling. The individual is violent, but not controlling. Situational Couple Violence: Although the individual is violent, neither partner is both violent and controlling. Mutual Violent Resistance: Both individual and partner are violent and controlling. Johnson defines intimate terrorism as the perpetrator using violence in the service of general control over his or her partner; his partner does not (Johnson 5). His interpretation views the intimate partner as someone who seeks long-term control through intimate terrorism. While focusing on how intimate terrorism, “involves the general exercise of coercive control”, he argues that “intimate terrorism” is what most of us mean by “domestic violence” (Johnson 6). He explains that this is the most commonly known type of violence due to its large amount of media attention and the focus on feminist movements and research done in the United States. Additionally, through his interpretation of intimate terrorism, Michael Johnson uses the Wheel of Power and Control, shown in Figure 1, to explain what type of intimate partner violence is used to attain power and control over another partner.
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Power and Control Wheel Coercion & Threats
Intimidation
Economic Abuse Abuse
Minimizing, Denying & Blaming
Emotional Abuse Abuse
Male Privilege Privilege
Children
Isolation
Figure 1. Adapted from Education Groups for Men Who Batter: The Duluh Model Ellen Pence and Michael Paymar [Pence and Paymar, 1993] (Johnson 7).
Johnson explains that this pattern of power and control could be better identified through multiple control tactics such as; male privilege, coercion and threats, economic abuse, intimidation, emotional abuse, isolation, minimizing, denying, blaming, and using children in an effort to assert one’s control over their intimate partner (Figure 1). While describing each of these control tactics, he explains how even when an intimate partner manages to escape one of these tactics, the controlling partner will use other methods to continue his or her dominance over the individual. In addition, he interprets the effects of these abusive relationships as being long-lasting with physical and psychological effects on the victim (Johnson 37). While concentrating on how intimate terrorism “happens over an extended period of time and develops within the context of an ongoing relationship”, Johnson discusses the idea of intimate terrorism occurring without physical abuse by using the term incipient intimate terrorism
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy (Johnson 46). He implies that even though his framework only identifies different types of intimate partner “violence”, coercive control, without physical violence, can restrict the victim and create the same effects of his previous interpretation of intimate terrorism (Johnson 47). Part Two: How literature and media sources portray domestic violence and femicide to the Italian public Although Michael Johnson’s Typology focuses specifically on studies of domestic violence of women in the United States, his interpretation of intimate terrorism is highly useful when analyzing how Italian media communications interpret and portray domestic violence and femicide issues to the Italian public. How do these literature and media communications interpret these issues to the Italian public? Though many of these media communications have different ways of reaching out to the Italian public, most of their interpretations are very similar to Johnson’s explanation of intimate terrorism. Though Johnson focuses mostly on interpreting domestic violence, these media sources have gone further by including femicide. Portrayal of Domestic Violence and Femicide in Italian Literature Questo non è amore (This is Not Love) This book describes twenty different stories told by survivors, victims, and domestic violence offenders, and depicts domestic violence in a similar way as Johnson’s description of intimate terrorism. In each story, each individual describes their life and their relationship experience with their intimate partner. Most of the stories portray domestic violence with the woman as the victim and the male as the perpetrator. Many of the victims described their intimate partners exhibiting jealousy, anger and rage, as well as implementing physical and psychological violence. One example is Antonella whose intimate partner would tell her, “without me you are worthless, you are nonexistent” (Pezzuoli 87). Another story is of Clementina, a mother who lost her daughter, Veronica, after a jealous boyfriend killed her. To raise awareness on femicide issues, Clementina has created a scholarship fund for students in Italy and is also advocating for laws to protect women before becoming victims of femicide. Similar to Johnson’s explanation of intimate terrorism through his Power and Control Wheel, this book describes the influence of physical and mental abuse of the partner, abuse of the children, and economical abuse. Lastly, this book also provides assistance with locations and people to contact for help with domestic violence issues organized by geographic region in Italy.
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL Additionally, Dr. Barbara Spinelli describes what her and her colleagues’ interpretation of femicide means and why they want to raise awareness on this issue. She explains that through explaining the stories of women who have suffered from domestic violence, she is giving them a voice, while also giving voice to those who were victims of femicide. Spinelli explains a literal definition of femicide versus “femminicidio”. In her opinion, femicide is the killing or murder of women, while femminicidio means each form of discrimination or violence based on gender that ends the women’s life through physical, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions while interfering with her fundamental human rights. To Spinelli, “femminicidio” includes the loss of life due to behaviors that kill and annihilate a woman without killing her physically (Pezzuoli 180). Ferite a morte (Wounded to Death) Much like Questo non è amore, Ferite a morte also includes the stories of women who suffered from domestic violence and were killed by their intimate partners. This book was also written to recount the stories of victims of femicide as well as to give courage to those women who can speak up now before it is too late. Ferite a morte is intended to provide a way for those victims of femicide to speak on even after their death. Author Serena Dandini includes the laws that have already been set up by other countries, including Article 2 of the United Nations’ declaration on violence against women, with the hopes that someday Italy will do the same and create laws to protect women. She explains how violence against women can be seen in multiple ways such physical, psychological, and sexual violence, and explains that it can be perpetrated by anyone against a woman (Dandini 143). She does not define domestic violence as a single term; rather she focuses on the general meaning of violence against women. To describe femicide, Dandini uses the definition of Marcela Lagarde, a Mexican feminist, which was “the extreme form of gender violence against women, produced by the violations of their human rights in both public and private settings, across various misogynistic behaviors (Dandini 143)”, which is the definition I use in my analysis. While Johnson focused on intimate partner violence, Dandini’s interpretation of violence against women was not focused specifically on domestic violence, and is rather a more general interpretation. In regards to femicide, this book portrayed the issue through various interpretations provided by individuals from all over the world. Similar to Johnson’s book, Dandini also provides the reader with national and international statistics on not only Italian female homicides, but global ones as well, and introduces additional factors
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy leading to femicide in other parts of the world such as female genital mutilation. Con la scusa dell’amore (With the Excuse of Love) Con la scusa dell’amore’s main focus is on hidden violence such as domestic violence and psychological violence, and also uses people’s personal stories as the vehicle for describing these types of hidden violence. They define domestic violence as l’abitudine; a habit. Women are so used to being treated a certain way, that they do not notice it is actually violence against them. Bongiorno and Hunziker explain that, “A long coexistence with violence impedes one from recognizing insults and threats as unacceptable. Many are the women who continue on like this, in silence, for their entire lives (Bongiorno et al. 106). Much like Johnson, these two authors focused on portraying intimate partner violence (e.g. physical abuse), sexual violence, psychological violence, and providing different ideas for prevention. They mention that each person has their own interpretation of what violence is. Individuals in the book, like Francesca, believed that the physical abuse she was experiencing from her husband was not extreme even if he had already attempted to strangle her twice (Bongiorno et al. 111). To raise awareness, Bongiorno describes how she and Hunziker created the Doppia Difesa (Double Defense); a foundation that provides women who are victims of violence and discrimination with legal and psychological assistance (Bongiorno et al. 133). One of the goals of this book, much like the other books in this study, is to help women understand that they are not alone. According to the authors, women who have received help and removed themselves from these situations are able to help other women by letting them know that violence should not be kept silent and that it can be defeated (Bongiorno et al. 133). I labirinti del male (The Labyrinths of Evil) Unlike Johnson’s focus on domestic violence, authors Rossella Diaz and Luciano Garofano both portray the issue of femicide to the Italian public by focusing on defining, describing and explaining it. Diaz and Garofano go beyond defining and interpreting the issue by providing guidance on how to defend oneself from being a victim of violence and femicide. Just like Bongiorno’s book Questo non è amore, I labirinti del male aims to provide a voice for victims, their families, and all those who have not had justice (Diaz et al. 13). Diaz and Garofano portray femicide to the Italian public through analyzing national and international data and statistics on female homicides perpetrated by their intimate partners. Using Rashida Manjoo’s explanation of femicide, they
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL explain how this issue is a violation of the right to life, equality, and the dignity of women (Diaz et al. 25). Manjoo’s research on femicide, gathered from the United Nations Organization, explains how domestic violence is the most widespread form of violence that remains obscure and underestimated, yet is a great problem in Italy (Diaz et al. 26). Diaz explains how the continuation of violence at home can be seen through the increasing number of female homicides committed by current and exintimate partners. A woman is estimated to die every two days, and over 70.8% of victims were killed by their intimate partners from 2000-2011 (Diaz et al. 30). I labirinti del male is described as an in-depth research analysis that tackles the issues of femicide. Their hope is to invite individuals to report such problems to prevent further deaths. Diaz also focuses on raising awareness for women who are currently experiencing domestic violence by writing a guide of what to do, who to call, and listing over 122 antiviolence centers located throughout Italy to go to if seeking help. Newspaper Articles Most of the newspaper articles found for this research tended to portray femicide issues through reports of individual female victims who had been murdered by their intimate partners. Newspaper reports explained how domestic violence was an issue prior to the murder. Most articles I found did not focus specifically on domestic violence, rather they focused on femicide while briefly mentioning that the victim’s intimate partner, who had been physically and psychologically violent to her, had committed the murder. Many articles described femicide as the resulting act of jealousy and rage (Valentini, 2014). Portrayal of Domestic Violence and Femicide in Italian Videos and Films Cortometraggi (Short films) The YouTube videos used for this research range from short public awareness films to ongoing television shows. All of the short films and videos portrayed women as the victims of domestic violence and men as the perpetrators. While showing examples of what could happen if no action was taken against domestic violence, these videos also tried to raise public awareness on how to prevent catastrophes, such as femicide, from happening. Some of the short videos ranged from women suffering domestic violence abuse and deciding to end this by leaving their partner, to women dying because no action was taken to stop the physical and psychological abuse.
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy Many of the cortometraggi, or short films used here, portray domestic violence and femicide by focusing on intimate partner violence. “Anime Brutali”, or Brutal Souls, is a short film with several individual scenes that portrays different types of domestic violence. It shows spousal physical and psychological abuse, which are similar to what Johnson views as intimate terrorism violence, as well as femicide (Riolo, 2012). One “Anime Brutali” scene portrays a male feeling like he is losing power over his wife after she offers to get a job to support the family due to their financial struggles. This short film shows the male protagonist physically hurting and sexually assaulting his intimate partner, then apologizing for his behavior by explaining that he cannot take the stress of being unemployed anymore. Another scene shows a young woman threatened and then killed by her ex-boyfriend after she kept receiving calls and messages from him, stating that he would kill her if she did not return to him. The final scene of this short film is a form of raising public awareness on domestic violence and femicide issues with advise for other women explaining how one’s life can change for the better and that the abuse will stop if reported on time (Riolo, 2012). “Valeria” is a short film portraying domestic violence. This film depicts a 21-year-old girl calling a radio talk show and asking for advice because her boyfriend has been physically and psychologically abusive to her. At the same time, an older woman has decided to leave her abusive relationship. As this woman, Valeria, is packing, she is listening to the 21-year-old receive advice from other callers as well as the two male radio hosts. The younger woman continues explaining how she has not received help from her family, as her mother believes everyone has their own issues and it is up to the individual to deal with and accept them (Rupalti, 2010). With callers approving what her mother has said to her, Valeria, completely disapproving, decides to call the radio station and give her own advice. She explains how one should never love someone who abuses you or calls you stupid; one needs to know how to change these situations (Rupalti, 2010). Leaving behind a bouquet of roses with a note that says: “Because I love you, do not forget it” as well as her cellphone, it is clear that after years of domestic violence, Valeria has finally decided to leave her abusive relationship. Other videos, such as “Amore e Possesso”, or Love and Possession, portray intimate partner violence as something that can happen to any female, at any age, at any stage of a relationship. This short film depicts an example of a young high school student who has the following issues with her ex-partner: stalking, violent threats, as well as verbal and physical abuse.
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL Interview videos are another form of video that try to raise public awareness on domestic violence and femicide issues. “L'inferno di Valentina Pitzalis e la sua forza”, or Valentina Pitzali’s hell and her strength, is an interview video that features Valentina, a victim of an attempted murder perpetrated by her intimate partner. Valentina, along with Giulia Bongiorno and Michelle Hunziker,try to help raise awareness so victims of domestic violence can take action through the Doppia Difesa and not let what happened to her happen to them as well (Veiner, 2012). Another short film about domestic violence shown by “Italia Allo Specchio” portrays domestic violence in the same way as Johnson’s intimate terrorism. In one of its scenes, domestic violence is portrayed through the eyes of a woman, Michella, who was not seeking help; a woman who believed her husband, Pietro, truly loved her although he physically abused her even while pregnant. This video portrayed the family as supportive and insistent that Michella leave this abusive situation, but Michella was hesitant, thinking that a baby would help change Pietro and improve her situation. After years of domestic abuse, Michella finally asked her family for help (Reny9768, 2010). Amore Criminale (Criminal Love) Upon researching short films, I learned that Italy has its own shows specifically marketed to women. “Amore Criminale”, or Criminal Love, helps raise awareness of both domestic violence and femicide through television productions. “Amore Criminale” expresses “the stories of women who have been victims of femicide without exaggerating or sugarcoating each catastrophe” (Amore Criminale, 2014). This program began airing in 2007, and over 150 individual stories have been portrayed to the public through a mix of facts and reconstructions of murders. In 2014, “Amore Criminale” begun focusing on women who have survived as well as women who have had the courage to seek help and report domestic violence abuse (Amore Criminale, 2014). This program’s objective is to make sure that women see that they have the power to change their lives. Every show begins with new statistics of how many women have been murdered each year as well as an interpretation of what factors lead to female homicides. In addition, each show explains how violence can happen to women from any location, socioeconomic background, culture, or age (Cilluzzo15, 2013). Hosted by Barbara De Rossi, with consultation by by Géraldine Pagano, an expert lawyer who has experience with victims of domestic violence; “Amore Criminale” expresses their belief that “behind closed doors, there are women who are suffering from domestic violence.” They
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy also hope that this program may provide a support system for these women and an eye-opener for men (Amore Criminale, 2014). Portrayal of Domestic Violence and Femicide by Italian Women’s Rights Organizations Women Against Violence Europe (WAVE) WAVE is a large network of non-governmental organizations that work together in hopes of fighting violence and injustice against women and children (WAVE, 2012). WAVE consists of counseling centers, emergency hotlines, women’s shelters, and organizations that focus on preventing domestic abuse and training women about their rights. A main focus is in promoting and strengthening gender equality by focusing on the rights of women and children as human rights. In 2012, WAVE reported a 2006 study on violence against women through an International Violence Against Women Survey with a sample of 25,000 women’s telephone interviews. Similar to Johnson’s portrayal of domestic violence, the WAVE report measures and portrays domestic violence as physical and sexual abuse committed by a male intimate partner to his female intimate partner (WAVE, 2012). Additionally, the WAVE report provides services for female survivors of violence including hotline information and women’s shelter information. This report also describes that there is a need for 6,019 shelter spaces for women, while currently there are only 500 spaces for women in the 60 women’s shelters located throughout Italy. Casa Delle Donne (House of the Women) “Casa Delle Donne: per non subire violenza” (Home of the Women: to not suffer violence) is a women’s rights organization that provides assistance to women who have been subjected to violence and who ask for help. This association portrays domestic violence and femicide issues as problems that need to be understood and prevented by the public. To provide assistance and raise awareness, Casa Delle Donne offers services to women and their children, trafficked women, and women who have been victims of forced prostitution. Casa Delle Donne is best known for its battered women’s shelters, refuge homes, transition homes, support groups, and services for minors. Opened in 1990, its mission is to stop any form of violence while promoting legal activities toward cultural change and prevention of violence against women and children (Casa Delle Donne, 2014). The Femicide Research Group, started in 2005, is part of Casa Delle Donne’s organization in Bologna, Italy. Its objective is to raise public awareness about femicide. This is a nonprofit group with
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL researchers, interns, volunteers, and other women interested in the subject. Through collecting information on femicide from newspaper agencies, local and national newspapers, and online newspapers, Casa Delle Donne was able to conduct and investigation from 2005 to 2013 on the number of female murders committed in Italy. Local and national news reports showed that there had been an increase in murder victims from 84 in 2005 to 134 victims in 2013 (Figure 2). Their research focuses on monthly numbers of female murder victims from 2012-2013 (Figure 3).
Figure 2. Trend of femicide from 2005, the year in which Casa Delle Donne began their investigation, until 2013. Information attained and translated from Casa Delle Donne.
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy
Figure 3. Number of reported female murder victims from January 2012December 2013. These numbers come from local and international newspaper reports collected by Casa Delle Donne. The graph has been translated from Italian to English.
Although they report 1,042 victims from 2005 to 2013, Casa Delle Donne states it is necessary to note that these statistics are estimates, because not all femicide crimes are reported to the public. For the 134 murders reported from 2012 to 2013, Casa Delle Donne’s investigation records the type of weapon used for the murders, the location of the murder, and the relationship between victim and partner (Figures 4, 5, and 6). Notably, over 64% of murders were committed in the home and by the victim’s intimate partner.
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Figure 4. Type of weapon used by perpetrators in 134 murders reported from 2012 to 2013 in Italy. Guns and knives were the most commonly used weapons. Information attained and translated from Casa Delle Donne.
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Figure 5. Locations of 134 murders reported from 2012 to 2013 in Italy. Over 64% of reported victims were killed in their homes. Information attained and translated from Casa Delle Donne.
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy
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Figure 6. This graph reports the relationship between the murder victim and the perpetrator. Intimate partners committed over 50% of the murders. Information attained and translated from Casa Delle Donne.
While the media describes the perpetrator’s reason for killing his intimate partner as an act of passion or jealousy, the Femicide Research Group interprets femicide as “a crime that is not accidental, but a result of gender discrimination as well as an unbalanced male-female relationship due to the difference of power and control” (Casa Delle Donne, 2014). This interpretation comes very close to Michael Johnson’s interpretation of Power and Control within the family as well as intimate terrorism (Table 1, Figure 1). Recommendations While this research has answered some questions, it has raised others; some which cannot be easily answered. For the purpose of this study, I focused on male and female intimate partners. Future research could consider the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Same-sex couples Couples with children Foreign women in Italy What happens to intimate partners after they commit the crime? Does Michael Johnson’s typology apply in Italy as it does in the U.S.? 6. How can we educate males before incidents happen?
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL 7. How can we help women learn about these issues and how do we most effectively encourage them to seek help? Conclusion Upon finishing my project, I understand that there are still many questions to be answered and plenty of research left to be done. It is important to be clear that much of the information used for this research was taken from and written by Italian sources. Through translating these documents, I have interpreted the authors’ perspectives domestic violence and femicide, and I have interpreted their accounts of portraying these issues to the Italian public. Although Michael Johnson’s Typology focuses specifically on women in the United States, his interpretations of domestic violence are similar to how the Italian media interprets and portrays domestic violence and femicide to the Italian public. There is the potential for a great deal more research in this area, but these findings can help facilitate additional understanding about the strong link between domestic violence and femicide. This research is salient because most research focuses solely on developing countries, but when it comes to women’s rights, all countries including Italy are affected. I believe it is very important to expand our knowledge of women’s rights violations happening at a global level including those violations happening in Italy. After analyzing each of my sources, I have come to the conclusion that although there are numerous ways of interpreting domestic violence, such as those described in Johnson’s typology, or those portrayed in Bongiorno and Hunziker’s book, the majority of domestic violence cases portrayed in this study involve violent or aggressive behavior from one intimate partner to another. According to my research, most of media sources portray domestic violence as similar to Johnson’s interpretation of intimate terrorism. These general portrayals of domestic violence are also similar to what my idea of domestic violence was before my research developed. The majority of books, articles, short-films, women’s rights organizations, and television shows interpret domestic violence as a description of situations where a male partner is violent and controlling while a female partner is not. One of the ways women can obtain help or become aware that they are victims of domestic violence is through media communications. If women are constrained to be housewives, their means of communication may be limited primarily to phone, television, and books. Women in this situation can learn through media communications and seek the help they need through information provided to them by these outlets. While domestic violence is often defined as the physical and
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy emotional inflictions of pain and abuse against a female partner by her male intimate partner, and femicide is often defined as the murder of a woman by her intimate partner due to jealousy, anger, or fear of loss of control, it is clear that these are not the only interpretations of domestic violence and femicide. With time, I hope to provide a new perspective on domestic violence and femicide research and assist in increasing interest in these issues on a global scale. References Action for Women. “Italy- Clip on domestic violence.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 9 Sept. 2009. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTUQw8jb_pA> Amore Criminale. Amore Criminale. n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. Bongiorno, Giulia, Hunziker Michelle. Con la scusa dell’amore (With the Excuse of Love). Milano, Italy: Longanesi & C., 2013. Print. Language: Italian. Casa Delle Donne: per non subire violenza. Casa Delle Donne. n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. “Casa delle donne per non subire violenza: Carta dei servizi”. Casa Delle Donne. n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. Cilluzzo15. “Amore Criminale Vincenza 7-4-2012.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 6 July 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. Crociati, Petra, et al. “Indagine Sui Femicidi In Italia Realizzata Sui Dati Della Stampa Nazionale E Locale: Anno 2013”. Bologna, Italy: Casa Delle Donne. 8 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. Dandini, Serena, et al. Ferite a Morte (Wounded to Death). Milano, Italy: RCS Libri, 2013. Print. Language: Italian.
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL Diaz, Rossella, et al. I labirinti del male: Femminicidio, stalking e violenza sulle donne: che cosa sono, come difendersi (The Labyrinths of Evil: femicide, stalking and violence against women: What they are, how to defend oneself). Modena, Italy: Infinito, 2013. Print. Language: Italian. “Femicide in Italy: An extreme form of violence against women”. Casa Delle Donne. n.d. Web 20 Apr. 2014. “Femicidi in Italia: I Dati Della Stampa Relativi Al 2013” Casa Dele Donne. n.d. Web 20 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. Istituto Magistrale: Benedetto Croce. “Amore e Possessocortometraggio contro la violenza sulle donne.” Online video clip. YouTube. Youtube, 1 June 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op9JpxKjxrc> Johnson, Michael P. A Typology of Domestic Violence: intimate terrorism, violent resistance, and situational couple violence. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2008. Print. Nadeau, Barbie Latza. “Femicide: Italy Passes New Anti-Domestic Violence Measures”. Women in the World. 9 Aug. 2013. Print. Nadeau, Barbie Latza. “Men Who Hate Women”. Women in the World. 17 Feb. 2013. Print. Pezzuoli, Giovanna, et al. Questo non è amore. Venti storie raccontando la violenza domestica sulle donne. (This is not love. Twenty stories describing domestic violence on women). Venezia, Italy: Marsilio, 2013. Print. Language: Italian. Reny9768. “Violenza domestica – 1a parte – Italia allo specchio – Rai 2.” Online video clip. YouTube. Youtube, 4 Apr. 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwAoW26w2BU> Reny9768. “Violenza domestica – 2a parte – Italia allo specchio – Rai 2.” Online video clip YouTube. Youtube, 4 Apr. 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZgv8TSHaCs> Riolo, Cristian. “VIOLENZA SULLE DONNE Anime Brutali.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 20 Nov. 2012. Web 14 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S9x-3VJWV0>
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Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis on Domestic Abuse and Femicide in Italy Rupalti, Alessio. “VALERIA (Cortometraggio contro la violenza sulle donne).” Online video clip. YouTube. Youtube, 12 Otc. 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ30-T1q9NY> Valentini, Enrico. “Roma, medico accoltella la compagna davanti al figlio di 6 anni”. Il Messaggero. 17 Mar. 2014. Print. Language: Italian. Venier, Mara. “Violenza sulle donne - L'inferno di Valentina Pitzalis e la sua forza.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 25 May 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Language: Italian. “WAVE Country Report: Violence against women (Republic of Italy)”. Women Against Violence Europe. n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Women Against Violence Europe. Feminist network promoting human rights of women and children. Web. 1994. Acknowledgments: I would like to give a special thanks to the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Program for supporting me throughout my research project and providing funding for this wonderful and enriching opportunity to grow both as a student and as an individual. In particular, I would like to thank Brooke Cassell, Jorge Martínez, and Dr. Gene Kim for encouraging and supporting me every step of the way. I especially thank Dr. Angela Ginorio from the Women Studies department who took me under her wing and provided me with the mentoring I needed to successfully complete this project. In addition, none of this research would have been made possible had it not been for the wise words and support of my mother, my amazing professors, mentors, and friends. These great individuals include: Maria Arias, Dr. Rachel Cichowski, Patrizia Fuoco, Giuseppe Leporace, Claudio Mazzola, and Mimis Santos. Some of these individuals not only taught me the Italian language, but also influenced my interest in conducting research on gender inequality issues, especially femicide, while making it possible for me to attain some of the essential materials for the completion of this project.
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL Zoraida Arias Majors: Italian; Law, Societies and Justice; Minors: Human Rights and Political Science Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, Dr. Angela Ginorio
[email protected]. In the future, I intend on extending my research on domestic violence and femicide issues not only in Italy, but also globally. My intended PhD program of study is in Social Work or International Relations and Public Affairs, with a focus on Public Policy and Human Rights.
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Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates Amanda D. Cortez Abstract Many cultures hold a position of dominance, exploitation, or power over other primates. This often results in turning these other primates into the "Other," which allows humans to use them as they see fit. This research examines the ways in which humans relate to and perceive other primates in order to understand how these relationships are associated with their varied uses by humans. Expanding upon the current research in ethnoprimatology, which examines the human-other primate interface, I used semi-structured interviews, observation, participant observation, and discourse analysis to explore the human perceptions of and relationships with other primates in the captive settings of a biomedical research facility, a zoo, and an animal sanctuary. My findings suggest that the discursive practice of human exceptionalism has facilitated human treatment of other primates to the point where their captivity is justified on the basis of advancing humanity. Each space of captivity is a zone of exception in which a normally unacceptable practice – captivity – becomes the norm through various justifications. As a way to maintain human exceptionalism, each site exercises biopower over the other primates in a condition of bare life. This study helps us to understand our hierarchical relationships with other primates, how they allow for exploitation, entertainment, or conservation values, and what this teaches us about the construction of "human nature."
Figure 1. Young squirrel monkey kept as a pet in Cusco, Peru.
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL Introduction: Primates as Humans, Objects, Other The first time I encountered an other-than-human primate, he was wearing a dress. I was at a baptism with my host family in Cusco, Peru, and just like the humans, he was dressed for the occasion. He was later changed into pajamas as we gathered at my host family’s house for a casual celebration. I was both fascinated and disgusted: there was a monkey in the living room, but he was dressed in pajamas and my host family was passing him around in a space in which I thought he did not belong. I encountered squirrel monkeys again when I returned to the United States, this time in a biomedical research facility. I found it interesting that the monkey species I encountered both abroad in a country to which they are native and at home, and in a country to which they are not, were both moments of encounters in captivity. I began to wonder how the other primates are treated differently depending on the context; although the two seem different, underneath the surface meanings that distinguish the two spaces is the shared veridical assumption of human exceptionalism that the many Western humans maintain. Human exceptionalism is the notion that humans are inherently more advanced than other species and as such we have the right to dominate. As Donna Haraway notes, a “culturally normal fantasy,”1 human exceptionalism “is the premise that humanity alone is not a spatial and temporal web of interspecies dependencies. Thus, to be human is to be on the opposite side of [Bruno Latour’s] Great Divide…”2 which distinguishes between what is nature and society, and what is nonhuman and human.3 Human exceptionalism is the discursive practice that allows humanity to use other beings as if they existed only at our disposal. To begin challenging human exceptionalism and get at the core of my original question, I developed two others to drive my research: What are the varieties of human perceptions of other primates at a zoo and how do these perceptions affect how we use the other primates? To answer these questions, I used the ethnographic methods of semistructured interviews, observation, and discourse analysis. In this paper, I claim that the discursive practice of human exceptionalism, which is rooted in Aristotelian philosophy, constitutes the normative and ontological basis of the human use and exploitation of the other primates.
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Haraway 2008: 11 Ibid 3 Haraway 2008 2
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Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates I use ethnoprimatology to decenter the human subject as part of an epistemological project to challenge human exceptionalism. I will extend on this framework by drawing on Foucault’s theory of biopower and Agamben’s notions of bare life, state of exception, and zone of indistinction. Through one ethnographic case study, I intend to demonstrate how human exceptionalism is the dominant Western hegemony and that it serves many people as justification for the exploitation of other primates by equating such exploitation with the advancement of humanity. Bringing these frameworks together, I argue that the practice of keeping primates in captivity is at its core a statement of power over other forms of life, which maintains the privileged position of the human at the top of an existential or dominance hierarchy. Specifically at the zoo, it is in various forms and at different moments a display of imperialism. For this paper, I define imperialism as an act of power where the imperialist state “expropriate[s] for [its] own enrichment the land, labor, raw materials… markets [and living beings] of another [place].”4 This could be for financial reasons or for simply instating and continually reinstating a state’s position of power. Zoos are rooted in imperialism. Although they have a deep history, zoos as we know them today began with the London Zoo, established during Britain’s height of conquest. Collection and appropriation of species serves empires through staking claim to materials and beings, which allows for an expansion of power. Ethnoprimatology, Biopower, and Bare Life Ethnoprimatology My project is rooted in the field of ethnoprimatology. As Agustin Fuentes (2012) notes, ethnoprimatology does not denote ‘ethno’ in the usual sense of a cultural distinction in the ways of knowing. Rather, it affirms the role of humans and other primates as coparticipants in shared social and ecological spaces and assigns them mutual roles in the development of each other and their shared spaces. Further, humans are primates, not organisms to been seen as distinct from the taxonomic order to which we belong. This last point is an important aspect: humans are primates; there is nothing inherently exceptional about humans and I use this idea to challenge human exceptionalism and decenter human beings.
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Parenti
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL Biopower, Bare Life, Zone of Exception In recognizing that humans are primates, I propose to extend and integrate the theories of Foucault and Agamben to all the primates. I engage the theories of biopower from Foucault and the three concepts of bare life, state of exception, and zone of indistinction from Agamben.5 I integrate these in order to frame a novel and more holistic way of understanding how humans produce, exploit, regulate, and constrain the existence of other primates. By extending these theories beyond the realm of the human, we can better understand how power and exploitation function as mechanisms for controlling all forms of life. Rather than an attempt to compare or equate human and animal struggle and exploitation, I aim to engage them in a critical juxtaposition6 rather than a direct comparison in which I can ask, “How do the struggles of other beings matter too?” as opposed to, “Which struggle matters more?” During the 1970s, Foucault developed his theory and analysis of biopower as a new mechanism of power crucial to modernity. He argued that the eighteenth century experienced a shift during which “for the first time in history, no doubt, biological existence was reflected in political existence…”7 Agamben, who expands biopower to conceptualize bare life, claims that biopower did not originate in the eighteenth century but rather can be traced back to Aristotle. Biopower and bare life are both predicated on Aristotelian conceptions of life and the state. As Agamben claims, the division between Aristotle’s political being and biological being, and not a shift in the eighteenth century as Foucault suggests, is the basis for the current biopolitical condition.8 Further, these different forms of being allow for a biopolitical subject, or bare life. A human in the state of bare life is stripped of all rights and meaning and is placed in a space of pure existence. This status exists in a ‘zone of indistinction,’ a liminal space between life with rights and life without, where life has been abandoned by law, and yet is subjected to the violence of the law and the state. This exposure of state-sanctioned violence toward a being in the ‘zone of indistinction’ creates bare life. The zoo presents a ‘state of exception’ in which an exception for a normally unacceptable action is made. This exception then becomes the norm. The exception for this space is that particular species of animals 5
Agamben 1998 I draw on the idea of critical juxtaposition from Chadwick Allen; see Trans-indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies. 7 Foucault 1981: 142. 8 Mills 2008: 61 6
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Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates are excluded from the basic protections granted to those life forms that cannot be imprisoned or subject to cruelty (e.g., laws against abuse of pet dogs and cats). Generally in contemporary Western society, it is unacceptable to keep humans – one form of life – in confinement,9 but most all other forms of life – the exceptions – can be kept in captivity. These other animals are forms of ‘bare life’ not in the sense that they are reduced to a certain state of living and survival, but in the way they are produced as bodies the state (or other human actors) can regulate in order to assert dominance. As such, these bodies enter a ‘zone of indistinction’ and captivity becomes acceptable. In this zone, a being is simultaneously excluded from the juridical order through the identity of a “right-less being” yet brought back into the juridical order through state-sanctioned violence.10 For this project, I combine Agamben’s ‘state of exception’ and ‘zone of indistinction’ into a ‘zone of exception’ to encompass the ideas that in a state of exception, beings as ‘bare life’ enter into a zone of indistinction in which they exist in a space of liminality. Moving Beyond the Human These theories from Foucault and Agamben converge to create an understanding of how humans can be subjected to abhorrent conditions, but how does this relate to all other forms of life? Can a state of exception and bare life pertain to other animals? Can biopower function as a mechanism of power and control over other life forms? I, like scholars Dinish Wadiwel and Paola Cavalieri, propose that these theories can apply to other animals and are necessary for understanding how other primates are held in captivity. I argue that the other primates at the zoo are used in a form of state-making that entails exerting dominance over other beings in order to maintain the power and functioning of the state. But on a deeper level, other animals are exploited on the basis of human-making, that is, continually drawing the 9
Although prisons, mental institutions, immigrant detention facilities, and other spaces of human captivity pose an interesting contradiction to our general dislike for human captivity and are themselves states of exception. 10 Violence in this sense should be understood in every sense of the word, meaning that I am not just demarcating an action that is intended to harm. Violence should be understood as follows: any form of physical violence such as but not limited to biomedical testing on animals; ontological violence such as keeping a being in a space it would not normally occupy; and psychological violence including denying a being certain things such as stimuli or their offspring.
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL line between human and animal. Placing other animals in states of bare life reaffirms the boundary that allows for human exceptionalism. In the Name of Education, Entertainment, and Exploitation: Zoos “We call it the human TV show that walks by all day,” a zookeeper said to me during an interview. She was referring to the orangutan exhibit and how immersed the other primates appeared to be watching the human zoo-visitors passing by all day on the other side of the glass enclosure. One can often find a couple of the orangutans attentively watching as people place their faces and hands to the glass. Some even enjoy looking into an ear or a belly button displayed by a human. During my time at the zoo, I observed countless people touch the glass just in front of an orangutan as if to make a silent connection with something that seems so familiar. I watched people stand in awe of the captives’ size and slow calculated movements. The line of people proved itself a type of exhibit of human emotions. I observed a range of emotions from amazement to empathy to pity as the visitors encountered a live being on display. But I also saw the undertones of human exceptionalism at work as some blatantly expressed the other primate’s role in society. People revealed their particular cultural understandings of the other primates through comments, displays, and “monkey” vocalizations that do not necessarily match the ontologies of the great diversity of primates. What is it that we see when we look through the glass and come face-to-face with another primate? In the unequal exchange that is the zoo encounter between a human and another primate, do humans really see an ape or a monkey or do we see the notion of an ape or a monkey? How is it that primates came to be in the zoo in the first place and what does this say about the institution and the society that keeps them? From a short history of zoos to illustrations from my fieldwork, I will show how an institution implements biopower over animals in a state of bare life in order to reinforce the status of the institution and of the human species by continually reproducing imperialism. Further, following the arguments from Mullan and Marvin,11 and Malamud,12 I intend to show that zoos teach us little about animals in their natural state; rather, they only teach us a culturally reproduced understanding of the idea of animals and their habitats outside of captivity. I thus suggest that because zoos only reproduce a human constructed view of animals and their habitat and do little to educate humans, zoos only reinforce power 11 12
Mullan, Marvin 1987 Malamud 1998
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Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates relationships between humans and other animals. I focus mainly on Malamud’s text because I share an interest in examining how zoos were and still are spaces of imperialism. Zoos and Imperialism The practice of keeping animals in captivity dates back to ancient times. A precursor to the modern zoo, menageries – a collection of wild and exotic animals held in captivity for display – were established by elites to symbolize power and status.13 As Katy Rudy writes in Loving Animals, animals were like jewels for the wealthy;14 they symbolized power, status, and wealth. Zoos as they exist today were founded in the nineteenth century with the establishment of the Zoological Society of London. In a mixture of scientific and imperialistic goals, the construction of the zoo mirrored the expansion of the British empire. The zoo was created in an attempt to surpass zoos in rival imperial countries and symbolically solidify England’s position of dominance.15 Zoos as Educational Tools: Cloaked Imperialism The shift from zoos as overt symbols of power to zoos as educational tools occurred with the origination of the London Zoo. Not only was it the first menagerie to be presented as a zoological garden, it was also the first to be opened to the public and it took on the role of education and entertainment for the masses. Zoos today have made an attempt to disassociate themselves with their imperialistic origins by further promoting education and conservation. American zoos have undergone huge changes during the last three decades and continue to do so in order to emphasize conservation and environmentalism, but this cloaked imperialism does little to change the reality of the zoo.16 Karen Emmerman briefly considers zoos through the lens of restitution. Do we keep animals in zoos and tout our conservational accomplishments in order to reconcile the human-inflicted damage done to other animals and their environments?17 Each change in name – menagerie to zoological park to wildlife conservation park – has been accompanied by an ideological shift – power and imperialism to entertainment and education to preservation 13
Malamud 1998 Rudy 2011 15 Malamud 1998 16 Ibid 17 Emmerman in Gruen 2014 14
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL and conservation through education – but rather than experiencing a shift, I argue that zoos have only taken on new dimensions to add to existing underlying structures. Reinventing Others “That’s a gross monkey. He is eating his puke,” I heard one child explain to another as they observed the gorilla exhibit. They were watching a gorilla engage in regurgitation and reingestion, a fairly common behavior amongst captive apes in which food is regurgitated and eaten again. Most people cried out in disgust when they first watched the gorilla perform such behavior, which is normal as most of us do not want to see already consumed food for a second time. What stood out here were the reactions wherein they projected onto the other primates their understanding of how a being should act. I understood this to be an example, as Malamud explains, of a space where humans “subsume zoos and their captive animals within various anthropocentrist [sic] social structures and systems of culture, thus misrepresenting the realities of animal existence and their role on this planet.”18 He was referring to zoos as cultural attractions of the human culture, but what I saw in my field work is that humans apply their particular Western understandings of primates generally to all of the other primates in the zoo and take away little in terms of educational value. Furthermore, zoos do little to nurture an appreciation for animals’ particular attributes, such as the gorilla’s regurgitation and reingestion, and instead “convince people that we are the imperial species – that we are entitled to trap animals, remove them from their worlds and imprison them within ours, simply because we are able to do so by virtue of our power and ingenuity.”19 Rudy notes a similar concern: opponents of zoos often criticize them because zoos exist to satisfy zoo visitors curiosity and thus, rather than being designed for animals, zoos are designed for humans to view them. After zoo hours, animals are often shifted to cages where they are separated from their “natural” plant life and their environments become even more obviously human constructed. Therefore, their environments exist for the human viewing pleasure rather than for the animals themselves.20 My data show a similar pattern, one that suggests that the zoo reproduces both power relations and teaches humans not about other animals as they actually exist outside of captivity, but of a human 18
Malamud 1998: 1 Malamud 1998: 2 20 Rudy 2011 19
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Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates constructed view of other animals. As part of the orangutan exhibit adornment in the zoo at which I researched, a number of painted figures depicting orangutan reintroduction line the human walkway outside of the enclosure. Painted cut outs of human figures holding baby orangutans show one of the many roles that humans play in relation to other primates outside of captivity. However, without any context, these paintings might be confusing – or telling – as they were for a boy I saw one day at the zoo. Noticing the paintings as he passed through the exhibit, he walked straight for them, hit one of the painted women and yelled at her, “Hey! Put that monkey back in its cage!” referring to the orangutan in her arms. I was struck not just by his action, which revealed his belief regarding where the other primates belong, but also by the swiftness of his reaction, as if that belief had long been engrained in him. Others were less aggressive in expressing their cultural understandings of the other primates. I watched as people made associations between the primates in captivity with things to which they could relate. I understood this to mean that perhaps they knew little about the primates they were looking at, so they drew on existing knowledge to understand them. Twice I heard children compare the orangutans to bigfoot and once to Chewbacca (from Star Wars), an understandable comparison; I heard one woman humming the tune to “I Wan’na Be Like You,” the catchy song sung by the orangutan King Louie in Disney’s The Jungle Book; others applied human-constructed ways of behaving to the other primates. Time and again humans seemed offended at natural bodily functions performed by the other primates that humans have deemed as inappropriate behavior in certain contexts: urination, nose picking, scratching in “inappropriate” places, and sniffing were, to many zoo visitors, behaviors deserving of an outright “EW, nasty.” It was as if people expected the other primates to behave “politely,” and when they did not, it was time to move to a different exhibit. In another act that displayed human understandings of other primates, some jokingly compared one of the other primates to a family member or friend in order to reduce a human down to the animal level. Jokes serve many functions in society such as relieving tension or social commentary, but they also offer insight into cultural knowledge and personal belief systems. “Look Joshua, daddy’s brother!” and “Kaya, it’s your big brother!” were both expressed regarding the gorillas and one mother stated, “Hey look, it’s Marcus!” while pointing at a macaque. These statements can be understood as insight into how humans perceive other primates: the jokes are “funny” because one is making a slightly offensive comparison (but all in good fun!) to an animal that is very human-like. In a way, there is some truth to it because humans and other
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL primates are, in fact, very similar, but not enough so that it is not funny. I observed numerous other people express the same sentiments in a generic “They look like you!” statement. Interestingly, this same assertion was used to indicate a different sentiment, one of relatedness and compassion. Yet another danger is that if humans learn it is acceptable to keep something so human-like in captivity, it may become acceptable to keep human beings in captivity. While some people compared humans and other primates in jest, others did so to express something deeper. “She’s beautiful. See her thumb? Like yours? She’s just like you. You have to take care of the things around you.” A mother stated this to her son of two or three years as they watched a gorilla sleeping near the glass. A common response to encountering the other primates was an expression of awe as humans articulated how similar the other primates were to them and some went further to express their sorrow that live beings were displayed in captivity. The most striking silent expression of such thoughts took the form of a woman placing her hand on the glass where an orangutan had placed her hand. For a brief moment, they were equals on opposite sides of the glass: the woman kneeling, the orangutan sitting, their shared state of being expressed through their mirrored hands. In another moment of beautiful reflection, a gentleman I met during my first day of observations stood silently in front of an orangutan chewing a piece of gum while she sat chewing on her celery. They chewed their respective foods in unison, a reflection of the life on either side of the glass. Patrick,21 the gentleman mentioned above, told me of his relationship to the orangutans. As a means of finding peace from the “mean” human world, he comes to the zoo multiple times a week to relax and spend time with the other primates. He says they like to watch humans do things, so he will often draw or do a puzzle for them so that they can engage in his activity rather than be the object of his gaze. I met two others who participate in similar activities. One day, I watched as two people took their seats in front of the glass and pull toy after toy out of a bag: play dough, a book, a push rocket, a toy squid, magnets, and a kaleidoscope amongst others. “It’s time for the people show!” one of the two humans shouted. A female orangutan sat herself directly opposite the humans and looked intently at the toys and tapped on the glass for new ones when she was bored. She even looked through the kaleidoscope as it was held to the glass. “She’s such a prima donna, such a drama queen,” said the other human as the orangutan tapped at the glass over and over, indicating that she wanted something new. The two have been coming to 21
For the privacy of my participants, all names have been changed.
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Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates the zoo for a few years and know the orangutans well by now, but this was the first time they brought toys. They were very aware of who each orangutan was, their preferences, and their behaviors. “She [a female orangutan] doesn’t actually like when you have your hands in her face, it’s very patronizing. Imagine someone waving their hands in your face. She likes it when people show her things she hasn’t seen before.” A False Education The zoo where I researched, a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), claims the following basic educational mission: to develop ecological literacy, to connect children to nature, and to provide pathways to conservation. There is a heavy focus on advancing conservation and increasing knowledge related to nature. Further, the zoo hopes to bring awareness to personal actions that can benefit wildlife and habitats. The AZA states that zoos and aquariums are “some of the best places for you and your family to get connected to nature and become engaged in conservation action.”22 I see one major problem with the zoo’s mission and the statement from the AZA: there is no direct claim that zoos promote educating humans about other animals. If this is not their mission, then why is it necessary to continue keeping animals in captivity? If it is one of their goals, as zookeepers and others assert, and we need people to directly connect to the animals, as supporters of zoos often claim, then zoos are not fulfilling that role, as I will discuss below. When asked about the zoo, Patrick said to me, “As imperfect as a zoo is, if we could just get people to fall in love with the animals, then we can get them to care and take action and we can make a difference for them. That’s what the zoo should be about.” Braverman also notes that the basis of the modern zoo institution is structured around the idea that zoo animals are wild animals and are therefore representatives of the conspecifics outside of captivity.23 Both of the zookeepers I interviewed expressed the same sentiment. Said Laura: … they’ve become ambassadors for their counterparts in the wild. They’re the ones that get people to actually care about orangutans or macaques; there’s no way that people would ever have learned about how few there are [outside of captivity]…So I do think they serve a greater purpose…the education and the awareness is a huge factor for having animals here. 22 23
Kids and Families Braverman 2012
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL While this is a tempting justification, I do not think it is valid. Malamud critiques zoos and the role that they play in conservation and claims that environmentalist ideals are just a tool to cushion the ugly side of keeping animals in captivity. By “aggressively coopting green rhetoric,”24 zoos can anticipate and deflect negative feelings by making a spectator feel good about the role they play in conservation by attending the zoo. He claims that as the ecosystem faces increasing signs of destruction and as we as a species realize our role in said destruction, “we seek some way of asserting human supremacy.” Modern zoos, he says, “fulfill such a role: it soothes and settles anxieties consequent upon our contamination of nature, as, perhaps, earlier zoos’ tributes to imperialism soothed their societies’ anxieties about exploitive domination.” Zoos have become a space where people can go to feel better about ecological destruction without actually learning or participating. The Wild, Reimagined There seems to be a general consensus that insofar as zoos promote education, and increasingly conservation, captivity is justified. There are two problems with this justification: first, it does not erase the underlying issues of power and imperialism and more importantly it is nullified because zoos do not teach us about animals and their spaces outside of captivity, only about a reimagined version, a version that exists within the confines of human culture. The data I collected during my time in the field indicated to me that instead of teaching anything about the animals in the zoo, zoos only reaffirm specific cultural understandings of them. Every reference to an ape as a monkey and every declaration of how we think another primate should behave – “That orangutan needs to brush his hair” – is not only a display of power in which we project onto the animal how we as humans believe they as animals should behave, it is also a discursive practice that reproduces a certain cultural understanding of the other primates. Second, zoos tell us as humans that in an act of dominance, we have the right to control animal populations, often in foreign countries, through means of conservation. This is both an extension of human exceptionalism, because it has become the role of the human to save nature, and an ethnocentric act in that Western zoos take on the responsibility of saving animals and their environments in other countries, implying that humans in those countries are incapable. Malamud claims that through conservation projects, zoos emit a 24
Malamud 1998: 48
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Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates “subliminal message” that “we must confiscate animals from other places and nurture them here because the people in whose countries they naturally exist are incapable of sustaining them.”25 The good intentions of the zoo are ultimately diminished by moments of imperialism and human exceptionalism. Every explanation humans give for keeping animals in captivity is a justification for exerting power over other beings. Biopower as a mechanism of power allows humans to designate animals as bare life in a zone of exception, which then makes zoos possible. Zoo Animals as Bare Life in a Zone of Exception The zoo is able to operate because the institution itself is a zone of exception in which beings of bare life are controlled by other beings in positions of power. This zone of exception allows for something to be acceptable in normally unacceptable circumstances; in this case, it is the keeping of certain animals, but not human animals, in captivity. These certain animals, through a process of devalorizing them just enough that it is acceptable to keep them in cages, become beings of bare life. As such, the state – that is, human culture and the zoo in this case – can stake a claim to their lives and control every aspect from their diets to their reproduction. Such control is most obvious in their caged existence, but zoos also make use of breeding programs, birth control, urine samples, and myriad other processes to control the life within the institution. The following examples illustrate control over life at the zoo: One of the orangutans at the zoo was unexpectedly born because a female who had been receiving birth control was “cheeking it”; thus, her son was born. Further, the gorillas at the zoo are currently a part of an attempted breeding program: a female from one of the three gorilla groups has been placed into a different group in the hopes that she will breed with the male of the group. Zookeepers also test female orangutan urine to observe where they are in their menstrual cycles. As bare life, the other primates and all other zoo animals exist in a zone of indistinction, somewhere between humans and animals, wild and domesticated, life with rights and life without, and life with value and life without, in which it becomes difficult to tell just where these animals fit. The animals are excluded from the normal juridical order of “political beings,” those that are human and can therefore have rights and participate in the state, yet included (through exclusion) back into it through the violence of captivity. These liminal animals, the 25
Malamud 1998: 71
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL “ambassadors for their counterparts in the wild” come to represent not their wild others, to which they may not even be commensurable as beings that have never actually experienced “the wild,” but instead a tool through which power functions to maintain the human position as the allpowerful species (zoos become influential cultural icons) but also as a member of the larger global society (though conservation measures). Conclusion: The Future of Human-Other Primate-Other Animal Relationships The discursive practice of human exceptionalism has over time justified the human-constructed dominance hierarchy and the use of other primates for the advancement of humanity. Through the practice of biopower – the management of life – the other primates are reduced to bare life and kept in spaces of captivity such as zoos. This zone of exception, rooted in power and imperialism, is maintained and controlled by humans in the interest of human welfare and profit. This practice of captivity allows humans to set themselves against animals in captivity. My goal has always been to challenge human exceptionalism and the human-dominated hierarchy but by focusing on primates, the taxonomic group to which humans belong, I too reinforced the hierarchy of what we deem important and reconstructed the human position at the top of that order. In order to truly challenge human exceptionalism and the dominance hierarchy, future work needs to extend beyond the realm of primates to consider the interconnectivity of all forms of life. References Agamben, Giorgio. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Trans. Daniel Heller-Roazen. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1998. Print. Allen, Chadwick. Trans-indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2012. Print. Cavalieri, Paola. “Cetaceans: From Bare Life to Nonhuman Others.” Logos 10.1 (2011). Web. 18 May 2014. . Braverman, Irus. Zooland: The Institution of Captivity. Palo Alto: Stanford UP, 2012. Print. Fuentes, Agustin. "Ethnoprimatology and the Anthropology of the Human-Primate Interface." Annual Review of Anthropology 41 (2012): 101-17. Web. .
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Drawing the Line: An Exploration into the Complex and Contradictory Relationships between Humans and Other Primates Haraway, Donna J. When Species Meet. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2008. Print. “Imperialism 101.” Michael Parenti Political Archive. Michael Parenti. Web. 18 May 2014. . Gruen, Lori. The Ethics of Captivity. Oxford UP, 2014. Print. “Kids and Families.” Association of Zoos and Aquariums. AZA. Web. 19 May 2014. . Malamud, Randy. Reading Zoos: Representations of Animals and Captivity. New York: New York UP, 1998. Print. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction, Richard Hurley (trans.) London: Penguin, 1981. Mills, Catherine. The Philosophy of Agamben. Montreal: McGillQueen’s UP, 2008. Print. Mullan, Bob and Garry Marvin. Zoo Culture. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987. Print. Rudy, Kathy. Loving Animals: Toward a New Animal Advocacy. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2011. Print. Wadiwel, Dinish Joseph. “Cows and Sovereignty: Biopower and Animal Life.” Bodrderlands E-Journal 1.2 (2002). Web. 18 May 2014. . Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor Devon Peña, who helped me with every aspect of this project. I extend my gratitude also to María Elena García for her amazing emotional support and for challenging me to consider all forms of life; to Clarke Speed for encouraging me to be passionate; to Jorge Martínez and Brooke Cassell for their guidance and support throughout the research and writing processes; to Gene Kim and everyone at the McNair Scholars Program for their support and sense of community; to my brother José Cortez for spending hours discussing my ideas and inspiring me always; and to the Mary Gates Endowment for Students and the Presidential Scholars Program for their support. Amanda D. Cortez Department of Anthropology, Devon G. Peña
[email protected] My research interests include ethnoprimatology, human-other animal relationships, and sociocultural anthropology. Next year I will be
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL attending the University of Notre Dame for the doctoral program in Anthropology.
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Rumination as a Mediator between Childhood Adversity and Depression or Anxiety Prysilla De La Torre Abstract Rumination has been linked to the onset and/or development of depression and anxiety. Rumination is a process of repetitive negative thoughts in response to distress or associated with an upsetting event or situation. In this study, I investigate whether rumination explains the relationship between different types of environmental adversity and symptoms of depression and anxiety in teens. Specifically, does rumination explain the association of trauma exposure, poverty, and race/ethnicity related with symptoms of depression or anxiety? Data for this study are drawn from a sample of 168 adolescents recruited from the community in Boston and Cambridge, MA. To examine mediation I examined four sets of models testing the following relationships: 1) the association between each measure of environmental adversity and depression/anxiety, 2) the association between each measure of environmental adversity and rumination, 3) the association between rumination and depression/anxiety, and 4) a final model that included the adversity variables as well as rumination to see the attenuation in associations of adversity with depression and anxiety once rumination was added to the model. The findings suggested that 1) child abuse was associated with elevations in depression and anxiety symptoms, and community violence was associated with depressive symptoms and marginally with anxiety symptoms; 2) child abuse was associated with higher engagement in rumination; higher income-to-needs ratio was also related to greater rumination; 3) higher levels of rumination predicted both depression and anxiety symptoms; and 4) the association between child abuse and depressive symptoms was reduced by 24.5% after accounting for rumination, and the association between child abuse and anxiety symptoms was reduced by 39.8% after accounting for rumination. These findings address a gap in the literature regarding mechanisms linking different types of environmental stressors to the onset of depression and anxiety. This is important for development of interventions for preventing mental illness. Introduction According to previous research, childhood adversity has been linked to the onset of a broad range of psychopathology outcomes including depression and anxiety (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000; Nolen-
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL Hoeksema & Morrow, 1993; McLaughlin & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2011; Levitan et. al., 2003). For instance, children who experience sexual abuse are at increased risk for developing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Research has also shown that rumination is related to the onset and stability or severity of depression and anxiety (Kuyken, Watkins, Holden, & Cook, 2006). It is important to further understand whether links between childhood adversity and psychopathology may be mediated by engagement in rumination, such that childhood adversity leads to rumination, which in turn predicts the onset of child anxiety and depression. My research question is whether rumination can explain the relationship between different types of environmental adversity and symptoms of depression and anxiety in adolescents. Specifically, does rumination explain the association of trauma exposure, poverty, and race/ethnicity related with the onset of depression or anxiety (Figure 1)? To investigate this question, I will use a mediator framework suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986).
Figure 1. Area of interest for the effect of rumination as a mediator.
Literature Review The Relationship between Childhood Adversity and Depression and Anxiety Childhood adversity (e.g., abuse, poverty, exposure to violence, etc.) has been linked to the onset of depression and anxiety later in life in many studies (Kessler et al., 1997; Green et al., 2010; McLaughlin et al., 2012). This research establishes the connection between childhood
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Rumination as a Mediator between Childhood Adversity and Depression or Anxiety adversity and the development of psychopathology. Multiple forms of childhood adversity have been shown to predict anxiety and depression, including child abuse, community violence, and poverty. According to Mullen and colleagues (1996), those who are abused as a child display depressive and anxiety symptoms as an adult. In another study, lower socioeconomic status (SES) was associated with poor developmental outcomes such as anxiety (Dearing, McCartney, & Taylor, 2001). Also, Goodman, Slap, and Huang (2003) demonstrated that lower SES was associated with poor health outcomes such as depression. In a different study, community violence exposure was correlated with increased depressive and anxiety symptoms (McDonald & Richmond, 2008). According to Williams, Neighbors, and Jackson (2003), race/ethnicity plays a substantial role in determining health outcomes due to perceived discrimination, including mental and physical health. Consistent with this notion, race/ethnicity could be related to expressions of depression and anxiety symptoms. The Relationship between Childhood Adversity and Rumination Exposure to different types of childhood adversity disrupts children’s ability to regulate their emotions effectively (including poor awareness of emotion and greater use of rumination). In McLaughlin & Hatzenbuehler (2009), it was found that stressors generated emotion dysregulation. While in another study, a stressor (peer victimization) was associated with increased deficits in emotion regulation (McLaughlin, Hatzenbuehler, & Hilt, 2009). Rumination was found to be associated with exposure to stressful life events in adolescents and adults (McLaughlin, Sheperd, Nolen-Hoeksema, 2013). These studies illustrate the association between exposure to different stressors and emotion regulation and rumination. This suggests that stressful life experiences disrupt emotion regulation abilities, which could lead to higher levels of rumination. Rumination’s Relationship with Depression and Anxiety Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, and Lyubomirsky (2008) found that rumination does predict depressive and anxiety symptoms. Kuyken, Watkins, Holden, and Cook (2006) found that those who were at risk for depression reported using the rumination process. The research also found that for those who already meet the criteria for depression, rumination intensified the severity of the symptoms of depression (Kuyken, Watkins, Holden, & Cook, 2006). This supports the idea that rumination is correlated with the onset of depression. Since depression is comorbid with anxiety, it follows that rumination could also be
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MCNAIR SCHOLARS JOURNAL correlated with anxiety (i.e., it acts as a transdiagnostic factor). McLaughlin’s and Nolen-Hoeksema’s (2011) study found that rumination accounted for significant overlap between depression and anxiety in adolescents and adults. This further offers an established relationship between rumination and depression and anxiety. With all these relationships studied, there has not been research looking at rumination as a mediator between childhood adversity and depression and anxiety. Researching this is important for future prevention interventions and overall research literature on rumination as a mediator. Methods My measures and data came from larger studies (McLaughlin, Alves, & Sheridan, 2013; McLaughlin, Rith-Najarian, Dirks, & Sheridan, 2013). Participants The sample consisted of 168 adolescents between the ages of 13 to 17 years old (mean=15). The participants were recruited from Boston and Cambridge, MA with an emphasis on diverse and low-SES communities. The participants were recruited from schools, after-school programs, clinics, and community. The sample consisted of 40.1% boys and 59.9% girls. The race/ethnicity of the participants consists of 17.8% Latino, 18.3% Black, 7.7% Asian, 40.8% White, and 14.8% Other racial/ethnic groups (Table 1). Measures: Demographics Demographics were collected through questionnaires administered to adolescents and parents. Questionnaires consisted of the following items: gender, date of birth, living situation, racial/ethnic background, and grade in school. Child Abuse Child abuse was measured using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) (Bernstein, Ahluvalia, Pogge, & Handelsman, 1997; Bernstein et al., 2003) which is a 28-item scale that measures three types of abuse: physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Participants report how often they experienced each event on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (never true) to 5 (very often true). The CTQ has good psychometric properties such as internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity (Bernstein, Ahluvalia, Pogge, &
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Rumination as a Mediator between Childhood Adversity and Depression or Anxiety Handelsman, 1997; Bernstein, Fink, Hondelsman, Foote, & Lovejoy, 1994). Community Violence The Screen for Adolescent Violence Exposure (SAVE) from Hastings and Kelley (1997) is a 32-item assessment of exposure to violence in the school, home, and community. In this assessment, participants rate their exposure to indirect (“I have heard about someone getting shot”) and direct (“Someone has pulled a knife on me”) violence on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (never) to 5 (almost always). Previous studies have shown that the SAVE has good reliability and validity (Hastings & Kelley, 1997). Socioeconomic Status Socioeconomic Status (SES) was measured with questions about family size and household income reported by parents/guardians. With the responses, an income-to-needs ratio was created comparing it to the poverty threshold in the US Census of 2011. Income-to-needs ratio was calculated by dividing the family income by the income for the poverty threshold for a family of their particular size. A ratio equal to or less than one indicated a family that was living at or below the poverty line (McLaughlin, Alves, & Sheridan, 2013). Rumination The Children’s Response Style Questionnaire (CRSQ), from Abela, Brozina, and Haigh (2002), is a questionnaire consisting of 25 items that measures how often children partake in rumination in response to feelings of sadness. Participants rate how often they have a certain response when they are sad on a 4-point Likert scale from 1 (never) to 4 (almost always). The CRSQ has good reliability and validity (Abela et al., 2002). Depression The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) is a 27-item selfreport measure of depression (Kovacs, 1992). The CDI consists of three response statements for different levels of depression (i.e., “I am sad once in a while, I am sad many times, I am sad all the time). The participants responded on a scale from 0 to 2 reflecting on the past two weeks to best describe themselves. The CDI has good psychometric properties such as internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and discriminant validity (Kovacs, 1992).
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Anxiety The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) by March, Parker, Sullivan, Stallings, and Conners (1997) is a 39-item anxiety measure for children between the ages of 8 to 19. It presents the symptoms of anxiety on a four-point Likert scale where the participants rank how true each item is for them from 0 (never true) to 3 (very true). The MASC has good psychometric properties including internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent and divergent validity (Muris, Merckelbach, Ollendick, King, & Bogie, 2002). Procedure Adolescents were recruited to participate in a study on childhood adversity, emotional reactivity, and psychopathology. Adolescents came to the lab to complete questionnaires as well as several lab-based tasks that are not the focus of my proposal. A parent/guardian accompanied all adolescents to the session. Parents provided informed consent and adolescents provided assent before adolescents completed the questionnaires. Analysis Methods To evaluate the hypothesis that rumination works as a mediator between childhood adversity and mental health outcomes, I used Baron and Kenny’s (1986) mediation analysis method. I ran single linear regressions of 4 steps (Figure 2) using MiniTab software for the statistical analyses. In this study, values p
