Date of Award
2013
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Anthropology Dept.
Advisor(s)
Britt Halvorson
Second Advisor
Mary Beth Mills
Abstract
While embarking on this thesis project I have begun by viewing Cape Verdean-Americanness and Uphams Corner as linked; to study contemporary Cape Verdean-American lived realities means consulting this neighborhood space, and the area is mutually dependent on its Cape Verdean residents. In the particularly unpredictable world of ethnographic field research, as I focused on the collection of narratives, a new and surprising actor emerged: the neighborhood space, around which crucial tensions revolve. It is vital to understand how neighborhood provides not merely the scenery behind actions but more importantly how, as a conceptual framework, it can also be constitutive of residents’ actions in relation to quotidian moments of identification. This thesis aims to highlight identity processes and performances among Cape Verdean (-Americans) in Boston (Uphams Corner). This ethnographic project underscores moments of identification, instances of tension, misunderstanding, or friction that make us more aware of our performances and presentations of self-- moments in which identity becomes temporarily more apparent as we make daily political decisions.
Keywords
ethnography, Cape Verde, race
Recommended Citation
Pires, Jessica F., "Uphams Corner and "Other" Spaces: Racialized Youth Identities in Boston's Cape Verdean Community" (2013). Honors Theses. Paper 697.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/697
Multimedia URL
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