This thesis concerns two quite different types of research that are separated into distinct sections of the thesis, but which seek to answer the same question using diametrically opposite approaches. The first part (Chapters 1-8) covers research leading to novel, bioactive compounds in marine sponges, while the second (Chapters 9-10) involves molecular biological studies of symbiosis between microbes and sponges. Although these topics seem at first glance completely separate, they are in reality intimately tied together through marine natural products chemistry. In some sponges, potential pharmaceuticals or compounds with interesting structures are produced by microbial symbionts, so a more detailed understanding of sponge-microbe symbiosis will lead to new compounds or a better source for new drugs. Conversely, a knowledge of chemistry, particularly biosynthesis and the distribution of compounds, can help in the understanding of sponge-microbe symbioses, leading to information which could never otherwise be obtained on microorganisms that are nearly impossible to culture.

Cbapter 1 outlines chemical research and provides a review of structure elucidation methods. Chapters 2-6 contain reprints of previously published material, describing the isolation and structure elucidation of novel secondary metabolites from marine sponges. Although the first compounds are achiral, most of the work in the remaining chapters pertains to the elucidation of the stereochemistry of new compounds.

The chemistry chapters progress logically into the introduction to biological studies, culminating in the structural solution of a peptide previously isolated directly from symbiotic bacteria of the sponge Theonella swinhoei (Chapter 8). With this chemical lead-in, current knowledge of sponge-microbe symbioses is briefly reviewed along with an introductory rationale to my biological studies (Chapter 9). Details of a molecular-biological study of sponge-microbe symbiosis in sponges of the order Lithistida are presented in Chapter 10. It is demonstrated that the symbiotic, peptide­ containing bacterium of T. swinhoei are new species of δ-subdivision Proteobacteria. Sequences of similar strains from closely related sponges and media used to attempt to culture the symbionts are reported. In conclusion, chemistry and molecular biology are shown to supplement each other in the understanding of sponge-microbe symbiosis in the order Lithistida.

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This dissertation examines how Tuareg people in Niger use music to reckon with their increasing but incomplete entanglement in global neoliberal capitalism. I argue that a variety of social actors—Tuareg musicians, fans, festival organizers, and government officials, as well as music producers from Europe and North America—have come to regard Tuareg music as a resource by which to realize economic, political, and other social ambitions. Such treatment of culture-as-resource is intimately linked to the global expansion of neoliberal capitalism, which has led individual and collective subjects around the world to take on a more entrepreneurial nature by exploiting representations of their identities for a variety of ends. While Tuareg collective identity has strongly been tied to an economy of pastoralism and caravan trade, the contemporary moment demands a reimagining of what it means to be, and to survive as, Tuareg. Since the 1970s, cycles of drought, entrenched poverty, and periodic conflicts have pushed more and more Tuaregs to pursue wage labor in cities across northwestern Africa or to work as trans-Saharan smugglers; meanwhile, tourism expanded from the 1980s into one of the region’s biggest industries by drawing on pastoralist skills while capitalizing on strategic essentialisms of Tuareg culture and identity. These developments engendered novel cultural production, including several new festivals across the Sahel-Sahara and a guitar musical style that has evolved from protest anthems into popular songs. This dissertation draws on over fifteen months of ethnographic research in Niger, Mali, and the United States—grounded in participant observation, audiovisual recording, consultation of archived materials, social media engagement, and interviews—to demonstrate how a variety of stakeholders produce, manage, and curate Tuareg music as a resource in order to produce diverse forms of value and to create meaning.

Background

Results

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Rationale

Objectives

Methods

Measurements and main results

Conclusions