Box populi : a socio-cultural study of the Filipino American balikbayan box

Alburo, Alice Jade A. (2002) Box populi : a socio-cultural study of the Filipino American balikbayan box. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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    Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.
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Abstract

In this thesis, the balikbayan boxes that Filipino Americans bring with them when they visit the Philippines are viewed primarily through the lenses of material culture and customary studies. It provides the historical, political, and economic contexts which have led to the immigration of Filipinos to America and the emergence of balikbayans—the returning natives—and their boxes. It also contains descriptions of balikbayan boxes, their contents, and the practices involved. This study indicates that balikbayan boxes are indices of balikbayans themselves. These packages are metaphors for the dislocation of Filipinos resulting from their immigration to the United States. These boxes are also sites, in which balikbayans are positioned as neo-colonizers and perpetuate American cultural hegemony. This examination suggests that balikbayan boxes are connected to a host of complex issues, including kinship ties and obligations, politics and economics, colonialism and postcolonialism, ,immigration and diaspora, globalization and commodification, exchange and reciprocity, travel and tourism.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
URI: http://research.library.mun.ca/id/eprint/1141
Item ID: 1141
Additional Information: Bibliography: leaves [292]-313.
Department(s): Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of > Folklore
Date: 2002
Date Type: Submission
Geographic Location: United States; Philippines
Library of Congress Subject Heading: Filipino Americans--Folklore; Gifts--Folklore; Philippines--Emigration and immigration; United States--Emigration and immigration

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