Subordinate Groups Research Articles

Does intergroup contact foster solidarity with the disadvantaged? A longitudinal analysis across 7 years.

Contact theory is a well-established paradigm for improving intergroup relations-positive contact between groups promotes social harmony by increasing intergroup warmth. A longstanding critique of this paradigm is that contact does not necessarily promote social equality. Recent research has blunted this critique by showing that contact correlates positively with political solidarity expressed by dominant groups toward subordinate groups, thus furthering the goal of equality. However, this research precludes causal inferences because it conflates within-person change (people with higher contact subsequently expressing higher solidarity) and between-person stability (people with chronically high contact simultaneously expressing chronically high solidarity, and vice versa). We addressed this problem in a highly powered, seven-wave study using two different measures of contact and three different measures of political solidarity (N = 22,646). Results showed no within-person change over a 1-year period (inconsistent with a causal effect), but significant between-person stability (consistent with third-variable explanations). This reinforces doubts about contact as a strategy for promoting equality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the assumption of measurement invariance in job performance ratings across time: The role of rater experience

AbstractPerformance appraisals are widely used in organizations and most typically involve raters evaluating groups of subordinates along a set of items designed to represent job performance over a predetermined period (e.g., annually). A defining but often overlooked characteristic of performance appraisals is that they are cyclical. Since raters conduct appraisals over many cycles, it may be that measures of job performance are not equivalent across time. This is important because changes or differences in aggregated performance ratings can only be meaningfully interpreted if raters' definitions of job performance, interpretation of what the items mean, and their view of what constitutes the different levels of performance remain unchanged over time, unaffected by their experience with appraisals. Although critical to the interpretation of job performance scores, measurement invariance concerns are generally absent from the literature. The current research investigated the extent to which rater experience affected the conceptualization and measurement of performance using performance data from a major South American company which comprised information from raters and ratees through several appraisal cycles. In the between‐rater design, measurement invariance was analyzed using ratings of one performance appraisal cycle from 514 raters divided into groups according to their level of experience. The within‐rater design analyzed ratings from the same 80 raters in their first three appraisal cycles. In the between‐rater analysis, data supported measurement invariance across raters with different levels of experience. Results from the within‐rater analysis suggested that the job performance factor structure was not the same across cycles. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The role of public relations in a counterhegemony: A case study of the 1968 poor people’s campaign

This study examined the role of public relations in Antonio Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony, specifically in a counterhegemony. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s preparation for the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign serves as a test case on how public relations can help subordinate groups confront a hegemony. This paper suggests that Gramsci’s philosophy provides an analytical heuristic for researching instances of contestation. Examining counterhegemonic campaigns offer public relations practitioners a means both to think about and to intervene in the world more effectively.

The influence of subordinates' proactive personality, supervisors' I-deals on subordinates' affective commitment and occupational well-being: mediating role of subordinates' I-deals

PurposeThis study intends to investigate how an employee's proactive personality and a supervisor's idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) relate to their subordinates' affective commitment (AC) and occupational well-being (OWB), in light of the mediating role of subordinates' i-deals, using proactive motivation theory and the job demand–resource (JD-R) model as theoretical foundations.Design/methodology/approachThe study consisted of 342 employees working in the hospitality industry. To examine the proposed model, the researchers used the structural equation modelling approach and bootstrapping method in AMOS.FindingsThe results affirmed the influence of subordinates' proactiveness on AC and OWB, but no direct influence of supervisors' prior i-deals on subordinates' AC and OWB was established. When investigating the mediational role of subordinates' i-deals, a partial mediation effect was found between subordinates' proactive personality with AC and OWB, whereas full mediation was established between supervisors' i-deals and subordinates' AC and OWB.Practical implicationsThese findings shed light on how i-deals improve AC and OWB for both groups of supervisors and subordinates. In an era of increasing competition amongst organizations operating within the hospitality industry, i-deals serve as a human resource strategy to recruit, develop and retain talented individuals.Originality/valueThe novelty of this research lies in its specific investigation of the combined influence of proactive personality as an individual factor and supervisors' i-deals as an organizational factor on subordinates' i-deals within the context of the hospitality industry. Furthermore, it aims to analyse the potential impact of these factors on AC and OWB.

The Origin and Evolution of DMM-Like Lithospheric Mantle Beneath Continents: Mantle Xenoliths from the Oku Volcanic Group in the Cameroon Volcanic Line, West Africa

Abstract The lithospheric mantle as sampled by peridotite xenoliths in some continental settings resembles the source of mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB). Whether this resemblance is a primary feature or the result of post-formation secondary processes remains controversial. Here, the age, origin and thermochemical evolution of fertile continental mantle are constrained based on the chemical composition of minerals in spinel-facies lherzolite and websterite xenoliths from the Wum maar and Befang cinder cone of the Oku Volcanic Group (Cameroon Volcanic Line, West Africa), combined with in-situ Sr isotope compositions of clinopyroxene and fabric investigation by Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD). The majority of lherzolites (here assigned to Group I) consist of minerals with fertile composition (olivine Fo89, Al-rich pyroxenes, spinel Cr# 0.08–0.10). Clinopyroxene is LREE-depleted and has depleted 87Sr/86Sr (0.7017–0.7020). Crystal-preferred orientation determined by EBSD reveals that clinopyroxene, and sporadically both clino- and orthopyroxene, post-date the olivine framework. Subordinate Group II lherzolites also contain secondary clinopyroxene which is LREE-enriched and has higher 87Sr/86Sr (0.7033). In contrast, the scarce lherzolites of Group III are more refractory: they contain 72–78 vol.% olivine, Al-poor pyroxenes, and spinel with Cr# 0.18. Clinopyroxene (87Sr/86Sr 0.7021) is texturally coeval with olivine and orthopyroxene. Few lherzolites contain amphibole (87Sr/86Sr 0.7031) which post-dates the nominally anhydrous minerals. Most of the websterites (Group A) are aluminous (spinel Cr# 0.04–0.06) with LREE-depleted clinopyroxene having depleted 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.7017–0.7020) similar to Group I lherzolites. Chemical characteristics of minerals coupled with the crystal-preferred orientation data suggests that Group I lherzolites originated in the spinel stability field by reactive intergranular percolation of an incompatible element-depleted MORB-like melt. Group A websterites likely formed as cumulates from that melt. The Group II lherzolites supposedly occur close to lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary and record interaction with lavas of the Cameroon Volcanic Line, whereas Group III lherzolites occur in the shallow part of the mantle profile and represent the protolith from which the Group I lherzolites were formed. Local crystallization of amphibole and concomitant recrystallization of the host lherzolite were driven by supply of water in an event post-dating the formation of LREE-depleted rejuvenated rocks. Migration of alkaline melts of the CVL apparently did not significantly affect the mineral and chemical composition of the lithospheric mantle, which allowed Group I lherzolites and Group A websterites to retain very low 87Rb/86Sr (average 0.002) and depleted 87Sr/86Sr ratios in clinopyroxene. This not only indicates their formation in the Paleoproterozoic (~2.0–2.25 Ga), possibly during the Eburnean orogeny at the margin of the Congo craton, but also indicates surprisingly little influence of the regionally recognized Pan-African event.

Heritage and Original Peoples in Argentina: Learning from Indigenous Voices

ABSTRACT Heritage has been widely discussed in Latin America in general, and in Argentina in particular, in the last two decades. There have been debates about heritage within academic circles, especially in the social sciences and humanities, it has been a concern of state public administration, linked to tourism development, and it is frequently mentioned in the media. Furthermore, heritage has become an arena of dispute and struggle of subordinate groups who are in the process of regaining their identities and cultural ways, achieving social visibility, and making their voices heard. This paper explores the relationship between heritage and Original Peoples in Argentina from the indigenous point of view. Throughout this article, readers will find different indigenous voices explaining what they consider Indigenous Peoples’ main patrimony, what type of relations they establish with it, and how heritage is involved in their current projects, claims, and struggles, especially over their ancestral territories. As shown in this paper, Indigenous Peoples in Argentina seek to recover their heritage to re-establish the order and balance of the territorial forces and to demonstrate their pre-existence: that is, that they were in certain places before the formation of the modern nation-state and, therefore, that they have rights over these lands. In addition, claims and disputes over heritage are favoring the re-emergence and strengthening of indigenous spirituality and cultural practices.

The best of both worlds: no apparent trade-off between immunity and reproduction in two group-living African mole-rat species.

Co-operatively breeding mammals often exhibit a female reproductive skew and suppression of the subordinate non-breeding group members. According to evolutionary theory and the immunity-fertility axis, an inverse relationship between reproductive investment and survival (through immunocompetence) is expected. As such, this study investigated if a trade-off between immunocompetence and reproduction arises in two co-operatively breeding African mole-rat species, namely the Damaraland mole-rat (Fukomys damarensis) and common mole-rat (Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus), which possess female reproductive division of labour. This study also attempted to investigate the relationship between the immune and endocrine systems in Damaraland mole-rats. There was no trade-off between reproduction and immunocompetence in co-operatively breeding African mole-rat species, and in the case of the Damaraland mole-rats, breeding females (BFs) possessed increased immunocompetence compared with non-breeding females (NBFs). Furthermore, the increased levels of progesterone possessed by Damaraland mole-rat BFs compared with NBFs appear to be correlated to increased immunocompetence. In comparison, BF and NBF common mole-rats possess similar immunocompetence. The species-specific differences in the immunity-fertility axis may be due to variations in the strengths of reproductive suppression in each species. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary ecology of inequality'.

Revisiting the phylogeny of the family Miridae (Heteroptera: Cimicomorpha), with updated insights into its origin and life history evolution

Heteroptera is one of the most successfully adapted groups on Earth and can be observed in almost every environment. Within the evolution of heteropteran insects, Miridae show remarkable diversity (>11,700 spp.), accounting for a quarter of all Heteroptera. However, their phylogeny is still unclear, and no plausible theory for the driving force of their diversification has been established. In this work, we provide new suggestions for the phylogeny of Miridae using a larger dataset than previous studies. In addition, we suggest an alternative evolutionary history based on newly calibrated divergence dates for Miridae and its subordinate groups, and present probable factors of the family’s success in terms of species diversity. The entire dataset comprises 16 outgroups and 188 ingroup taxa including all seven known subfamilies and 37 out of 45 known tribes. Each species is aligned as 3,577 bp with six molecular loci (COI, 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA D3 region, H2A, and H3A). Among the molecular markers, we are the first to test histone genes (H2A, H3A) in Miridae. Our results raise the following points about phylogenetic relationships: i) The earliest group to diverge from Miridae was Monaloniini (Bryocorinae). ii) Bryocorinae and Cylapinae are polyphyletic, Deraeocorinae and Orthotylinae also rendered as non-monophyletic group. iii) Termatophylini and Coridromiini separated from Deraeocorinae and Orthotylinae respectively. iv) Four large tribes, Orthotylini, Phylini, Deraeocorini and Mirini are non-monophyletic. The results from our ancestral state reconstruction and divergence date estimation suggest the following: i) Miridae first diverged during the Late Jurassic (approx. 163.4 Mya), and the divergence dates of most subfamilies and tribes overlap with angiosperm radiation, which perhaps synergized their diversification. ii) Ancestral reconstruction results for Miridae reveal it to be predominantly phytophagous and diverge to oligophagy mainly in plant-tissue habitats, which could have allowed the mirids to select optimal tactics as plant-dwellers. iii) The common ancestor of Miridae originated among plant-dwellers mainly on Eudicots, and that tendency was largely maintained, but sporadic host shifts also occurred.

Biased Evaluative Descriptions

AbstractIn this essay I identify a type of linguistic phenomenon new to feminist philosophy of language: biased evaluative descriptions. Biased evaluative descriptions are descriptions whose well-intended positive surface meanings are inflected with implicitly biased content. Biased evaluative descriptions are characterized by three main features: (1) they have roots in implicit bias or benevolent sexism, (2) their application is counterfactually unstable across dominant and subordinate social groups, and (3) they encode stereotypes. After giving several different kinds of examples of biased evaluative descriptions, I distinguish them from similar linguistic concepts, including backhanded compliments, slurs, insults, epithets, pejoratives, and dog whistles. I suggest that the traditional framework of Gricean implicature cannot account for biased evaluative descriptions. I discuss some challenges to the distinctiveness and evaluability of biased evaluative descriptions, including intersectional social identities. I conclude by discussing their social significance and moral status. Identifying biased evaluative descriptions is important for a variety of social contexts, from the very general and broad (political speeches) to the very particular and small (bias in academic hiring).

WOMEN’S LANGUAGE IN KIM KARDASHIAN’S INTERVIEW WITH VOGUE

As a subordinate group in society, women should speak and behave politely. This situation makes women have their characteristics when they speak. Kim Kardashian is a celebrity who has influenced many people through her fashion sense and career advancement as a celebrity and businesswoman. This research aims to examine the women's language characteristics that occurred in Kim Kardashian's utterances in her interview with Vogue. The instrument of this research is a document. First, the data were collected from Kim Kardashian’s interview with Vogue. The data were selected and identified the women's language characteristics that appeared in Kim Kardashian's utterances. Then the research showed the research findings by presenting the data and analysis. There are 360 data classified as women's language characteristics, which consist of 106 intensifiers, 84 hedges, 71 rising intonation, 34 emphatic stress, 31 hypercorrect grammar, 20 empty adjectives, five tag questions, 4 super polite forms, 3 specific colours, and 2 avoidances of swear words. An intensifier is a characteristic that Kim Kardashian frequently uses because she wants to express her certainty about her utterances and make them firmer, so the addressee will take her statements seriously and get the point of her statement.

On resistance and pluriversal voices of subversive archaism

On resistance and pluriversal voices of subversive archaism

Coercion promotes alloparental care in cooperative breeders.

Members of social groups may negotiate among each other about the exchange of goods and services. If this involves asymmetries between interacting partners, for instance in condition, power, or expected payoffs, coercion may be involved in the bargain. Cooperative breeders are excellent models to study such interactions, because asymmetries are inherent in the relationship between dominant breeders and subordinate helpers. Currently it is unclear whether punishment is used to enforce costly cooperation in such systems. Here we investigated experimentally in the cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher whether alloparental brood care provided by subordinates is contingent on enforcement by dominant breeders. We manipulated first the brood care behavior of a subordinate group member and then the possibility of the dominant breeders to punish idle helpers. When subordinates were prevented from providing brood care, breeders increased their attacks on them, which triggered increased alloparental brood care by helpers as soon as this was again possible. In contrast, when the possibility to punish helpers was prevented, energetically costly alloparental brood care did not increase. Our results confirm predictions of the pay-to-stay mechanism causing alloparental care in this species and they suggest more generally that coercion can play an important role in the control of cooperation.

Une dignité majuscule ? Nomination de soi et luttes symboliques dans l’histoire africaine-américaine

This article examines the politics of self-nomination through which African Americans have sought to define themselves throughout their history in British North America and the United States. From the slavery era to the present day, this long-term study analyzes the political strategies and ethical issues of self-nomination for a subordinate group subject to the naming power held by the white majority group.

Gendered parenthood gaps in employer-provided training: the role of immediate supervisors

Abstract Powerful male actors are argued to secure workplace resources for themselves and other in-group members, contributing to workplace inequalities. We contend that, like gender, parenthood similarity in supervisor–supervisee dyads also provokes group processes, and that parenthood is superordinate to childlessness. Critically, we hypothesize how shared supervisor–supervisee parental status at its intersection with gender might intensify or offset (dis)advantage in access to workplace training. Hypotheses are tested with unique linked German employer–employee data and estimating gender-parental training differences using workplace fixed-effects regressions. Results show that while on average women train less than men and parents train more than childless workers, these effects can alter at the intersection with supervisors’ group memberships. Dyad ‘double jeopardy’ is evident in that childless women face the greatest training disadvantages when reporting to childless female supervisors. Yet whether sharing one superordinate status offsets disadvantage of a subordinate group membership occurs only for shared parenthood. Childless men gain no advantage when reporting to a male supervisor, whereas sharing parenthood with immediate supervisors countervails disadvantage of being female for mother supervisees. We conclude that only by considering social relations at the intersection of supervisor–supervisees’ multiple categorical memberships might we better understand the relational processes sustaining or reducing workplace inequalities.

He who laughs last laughs the loudest: the 2021 donchi-kubeba (don’t tell) elections in Zambia

ABSTRACT Most Africanist scholars stress the importance of clientelism in determining electoral outcomes and patrimonialism and the use of force in enabling ruling parties to prolong their stay in power. This article, which draws upon various instances of participant observation and interviews regarding the 2021 elections in Zambia, contributes to the few studies that emphasise the limits of clientelism and patrimonialism in African politics and the agency of voters or subordinate groups to hold their leaders accountable. It does so by showing how Zambian voters sought to secure benefits from clientelist campaigns, patrimonial rule and trade union campaigns to win changes in state policies, publicly promising reciprocity and loyalty when under the gaze of the ruling party actors, only to vote them out of power.

ПАРАДИГМА ЭТНОПОЛИТИЧЕСКОГО АРОМОРФОЗА В НАЦИЕСТРОИТЕЛЬСТВЕ НОВЫХ ГОСУДАРСТВ

In the context of global transformations taking place in the world and affecting the ethnopolitical sphere of national politics, the authors see the following scientific, political and managerial problem.Namely, ensuring the stability and sustainability of political systems of states in an era of unsettled identities. Moreover, during the formation of civil (state) identities in new polities in the post-Soviet space. Based on the evolutionary theory of aromorphosis in biology (A.N. Severtsov, I.I. Shmalgauzen, L.Sh. Davitashvili) and in society (G. Spencer, L.E. Grinin, A.V. Korotaev), the authors of the article present a paradigm of ethnopolitical aromorphosis, as well as the paradigmatic theory of transethnic transitions of a number of ethnic groups in new states. Within the framework of this paradigm, the authors present three main models of ethnopolitical aromorphosis in the post-Soviet space: a model of ideological adaptation (minor evolutionary changes), a model of ethnopolitical catamorphosis or ethnopolitical degeneration, a transethnic transition of subordinate groups to other ethnic and civil identities of new polities, a hybrid model of ethnopolitical aromorphosis, in fact, movements from the model of ideological adaptation to the model of controlled regressive changes. The purpose of the article is to explain the evolutionary process of correction (soft form) and change of ethnic identities (radical form) of subordinate and dominant ethnic groups in new polities, which leads the authors to the identification and justification of a new type of nation-building - ethnopolitical aromorphosis. Objectives of the article: 1) to substantiate the action of the paradigm of ethnopolitical aromorphosis, the paradigmatic theory of transethnic transitions in the post-Soviet space, 2) to present the models and effects of ethnopolitical aromorphosis in new polities, 3) to substantiate the right to exist of the paradigm and paradigm theory with empirical data and arguments of already existing ethnopolitical theories, 4) link the process of ethnopolitical aromorphosis with the imperative of ensuring the stability of the political systems of new polities, some of which are logically correlated with failed (unformed) states.

ОБРАЗ ІДЕАЛЬНОГО ТА РЕАЛЬНОГО КЕРІВНИКІВ МЕДИЧНОГО ЗАКЛАДУ В УМОВАХ ПАНДЕМІЇ

The theoretical analysis of a manager's image has showed that it includes personality structures of ideal and real managers. The internal factors that form images of ideal and real managers include: personal traits; skills, knowledge, aptitudes and abilities necessary for efficient management; features of character and behaviour, including management styles. The external factors include: a situation in which management is carried out and heterogeneity of the social group of subordinates. Management in medical organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic has its own specifics, namely, several types of managers should be involved into it: middle managers and senior managers. The analysis of the research results showed some similarity between the images of ideal and real managers in medical organizations. The greatest similarity was observed for the following traits: self-confident, friendly, having high communicative skills, with a sense of humour, supporting universal values, flexible, stress-resistant, courageous in decision-making, organized at work, authoritative, having critical, analytical thinking. Differences between the images of real and ideal managers were revealed for the following features: activity, lack of initiative, ability to clearly define professional and personal goals and tasks, honesty, aggressive attitude to criticism. The main psychological factors in the image structures of ideal and real managers in medical organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic were determined. The image of an ideal manager included such factors as professionalism, care for subordinates, passivity, restrained dictatorship, steadfastness of character. The image of a real manager included such factors as are consistency in work, care for subordinates, efficiency, professionalism, authoritarian style, decision-making, openness. It was important for the medical staff that their manager was competent, demanding and fair, unwavering in decision-making, accepting calmly criticism directed at him/her, being well balanced and open to interactions and dialogue and having a restrained directive leadership style.

Humour, Jihad Al-Tabyyin and Performance Activism in Lebanon

This article discusses how forms of humour have been mobilised to negotiate, subvert or sustain various paradigms of structural oppression. By so doing, it highlights the shift between the sacred and the profane; the religious and the secular in performance activism by looking into humour as a genre of Resistance Art, both among secular and religious actors. As case studies, ‘Christian’ comedians Charbel Khalil and animator Ralf Karam exemplify the former (the secular); and ‘Sunni’ Palestinians (involved in nationalist struggle) and the ‘Shi‘a’ resistance movement Hizbullah, the latter (the religious). The rapid evolution of Hizbullah from a marginal splinter group to a dominant segment in Lebanese, regional and international politics enhanced its orientation towards cultural and artistic productions by giving them more weight and visibility in public space. Hizbullah believes that art is the most eloquent and effective means of Islamic propagation; thus relating public interest (maslaha) to reform, resistance, mobilisation and political struggle. That might explain why Hizbullah invests heavily in performance activism. As a Resistance Movement, Hizbullah considers purposeful art, or ideologically motivated art, as Resistance Art. In its ideology, Hizbullah regards popular culture as a site of struggle between: (1) the ‘resistance’ of subordinate groups in society, the subaltern groups, or the ‘oppressed’, and (2) the forces of ‘incorporation’ operating in the interest of dominant groups in society, or the ‘oppressors’. As an Islamic protest (jihadi) movement, Hizbullah considers Resistance Art as counter-hegemonic art, which aims at rectifying individuals and reforming society by portraying art as pious–moral productions that provoke serious thought and discussion, rather than what it considers the ‘purposeless’ ‘art for the mere sake of art’. All of the above, including Hizbullah, consider humour as an ‘agency’; as a socially constructed phenomenon. Both Khalil and Karam support the dictum of ‘scourge of evil laugh’. Their works exemplify the theatre of the absurd: absurdist drama or tragic comedy, replete with oxymora, which Hizbullah also subscribes to. Since Khalil and Karam consider their comic works as ‘artistic resistance’ (muqawama faniyya), then how does their humour differ from Hizbullah’s Resistance Art? Unlike Khalil and Karam, Hizbullah does not consider ‘the widest possible spectrum of humorous expression an artistic, cultural, and social good’ (Schweizer, 2020, p. 36), rather only performance activism of Resistance Art and its derivatives of didactic and purposeful-oriented art and performances.

Lethal Hegemony over Subaltern Tribes: Textual Analysis of Jamil Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon

The present study aspires to explore the downtrodden condition of subaltern people in the novel The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad which was published in 2011. This paper aims to manifest the hostility of hegemony over the tribes alongside the Pakistan-Afghan border. The objective of the study is to elucidate the manipulative and hegemonic actions of the government over Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Textual analysis of the novel explicates the sovereignty of local elites perverting the lawful proceedings in tribes. It further divulges the lethal atrocities being committed on subordinate groups effectuated by unjust verdicts. A qualitative research paradigm has been used for the study which is descriptive in nature. The present study is theoretically framed on Antonio Gramsci’s postulates on hegemony. Robert Young’s tenets on subaltern studies also support the present study.

An Ecofeminist Analysis of Fartuma Kusow’s Tale of A Boon’s Wife

<p>This article examines the exploitation of women, nature, and certain other oppressed groups in Fartumo Kusow’s novel, Tale of a Boon’s Wifeusing an ecofeminist literary approach.The novel tackles a number of contemporary Somalia-related concerns. It addresses topics including sociocultural factors, the strongly ingrained patriarchal system, the effects of war and violence, the issues associated with environmental disasters, etc. Thus, exploring this novel from an ecofeminism perspective will show how the writer addressed gender injustice, environmental crises, and various types of dominance and exploitation rooted in their societies. To extract relevant data from the novel, a close reading was done. Then, a textual analysis was employed to analyze the extracted texts. Therefore, based on the analysis made, the novel significantly portrays the deep-rooted patriarchal system in Somalia. Women and girls are especially vulnerable to both domestic and public abuse. The novel also demonstrates that continued war and conflict, and drought have a direct and indirect impact on women, children, farmers, animals, and the natural environment. It also shows that war and instability create a good situation for those military officials and members to subjugate women and control vast amounts of fertile land for their own personal gain by displacing poor farmers. Furthermore, the novel has portrayed discrimination based on clan and class differences in its impact on women and other subordinate groups. On the other hand, it portrays Idil, the main character, resisting all these differences and giving value to all humans, animals, and the natural environment, including the land. Finally, the author has put all these unprivileged groups together: women, children, animals, farmers, and the natural environment, including the land, in one category to show how they are mistreated and exploited simultaneously by powerful men. <strong></strong></p>