Social Anthropologyhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/1202024-03-28T23:21:39Z2024-03-28T23:21:39ZChristianity, stigma, and mass conversion among Spanish GitanosMontañés Jiménez, Antoniohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/294272024-03-09T03:06:52Z2021-06-28T00:00:00ZMy doctoral thesis examines the emergence of religiously based worldviews, values, and collective imaginaries among Roma/Gitanos in Spain. Juxtaposing long-term ethnographical observation, interviews with religious leaders, and critical text-analysis, I analyse the large-scale religious conversion of Gitanos from Catholicism to Evangelical Pentecostal Christianity in the city of Madrid. My thesis contributes to several fields of social scientific inquiry, including the Sociology of Religion, Anthropology of Christianity, and Romani Studies. By examining how Gitanos engage with Evangelicalism, I also provide a lens through which to comprehend how religion and ethnicity intertwine in contemporary southern Europe and enhance our understanding of the influence of non-Catholic forms of Christianity among social minorities in Mediterranean contexts. Focusing on the role of pastors from the leading Gitano Evangelical Church in Spain, known as the Iglesia Evangélica de Filadelfia (IEF), I argue that through conversion Spanish Gitano believers negotiate vital gendered aspects of their cultural identity and reframe their sense of otherness vis-à-vis non-Gitanos. Challenging social and academic assumptions about the victimhood and lack of agency among Roma people, I show how Gitanos engage with Christianity to re-construct their subjectivity and consciousness, face the consequences of discrimination, and refashion their sense of worth in the Spanish society. In so doing, I place agency at the core of sociological and anthropological thinking. Moreover, I engage with social, media, and political debates about the persistence of Roma/Gitano exclusion and marginality in contemporary capitalist societies and discuss Christianity's role in shaping Gitano notions of identity, gender, belonging, and citizenship. Additionally, my thesis opens new questions and further academic knowledge regarding the ethnographic study of Gitano groups by revealing the intricacies of ethnographic encounters shaped by unequal power relations, negotiations, and conflicting interests. By offering ethnographically grounded insights about the religious conversion of Gitanos, my work contributes to comparative studies of other Evangelical stigmatised minorities in various societies in the world.
2021-06-28T00:00:00ZMontañés Jiménez, AntonioMy doctoral thesis examines the emergence of religiously based worldviews, values, and collective imaginaries among Roma/Gitanos in Spain. Juxtaposing long-term ethnographical observation, interviews with religious leaders, and critical text-analysis, I analyse the large-scale religious conversion of Gitanos from Catholicism to Evangelical Pentecostal Christianity in the city of Madrid. My thesis contributes to several fields of social scientific inquiry, including the Sociology of Religion, Anthropology of Christianity, and Romani Studies. By examining how Gitanos engage with Evangelicalism, I also provide a lens through which to comprehend how religion and ethnicity intertwine in contemporary southern Europe and enhance our understanding of the influence of non-Catholic forms of Christianity among social minorities in Mediterranean contexts. Focusing on the role of pastors from the leading Gitano Evangelical Church in Spain, known as the Iglesia Evangélica de Filadelfia (IEF), I argue that through conversion Spanish Gitano believers negotiate vital gendered aspects of their cultural identity and reframe their sense of otherness vis-à-vis non-Gitanos. Challenging social and academic assumptions about the victimhood and lack of agency among Roma people, I show how Gitanos engage with Christianity to re-construct their subjectivity and consciousness, face the consequences of discrimination, and refashion their sense of worth in the Spanish society. In so doing, I place agency at the core of sociological and anthropological thinking. Moreover, I engage with social, media, and political debates about the persistence of Roma/Gitano exclusion and marginality in contemporary capitalist societies and discuss Christianity's role in shaping Gitano notions of identity, gender, belonging, and citizenship. Additionally, my thesis opens new questions and further academic knowledge regarding the ethnographic study of Gitano groups by revealing the intricacies of ethnographic encounters shaped by unequal power relations, negotiations, and conflicting interests. By offering ethnographically grounded insights about the religious conversion of Gitanos, my work contributes to comparative studies of other Evangelical stigmatised minorities in various societies in the world.Making sense of Melayu : an ethnographic study of primary school children in Brunei DarussalamShahrin, Shariza Wahyunahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/292662024-02-21T03:10:33Z2021-06-28T00:00:00ZThis study examines how social relations in a school, and at home, shape primary school children’s understanding of Melayu (Malay) in Brunei Darussalam. Social relations, specifically the child-child, teacher-pupil, and parent-child relationships, are significant because they inform children’s notions of being Malay as well as uncover ideas that are taken for granted by adults. Concurrently, these relationships highlight the fundamental condition of intersubjectivity, as a form of human sociality.
The ethnographic fieldwork for the study took place at a state school between January 2016 until March 2017. While pupils are the main focus of the study, teachers, parents and guardians are also interviewed because of its usefulness in investigating their experiences when they were primary school children themselves in order to document the transformation of ideas due to changing historical circumstances. The methods used are mainly participant observation and interviews as well as casual conversations with both children and adults.
From the data gathered, the major themes that form the research – and is tied together in the Bruneian context – is personhood, Malay, morality, and respect. Children come to understand the concept of Malay, and what it means to be a Brunei Malay Muslim person, through the different ideas and understandings of respect, which is inextricably linked with moral values and hierarchical relations, against a backdrop of state ideology and the Islamic religion. Consequently, what is significant is that children do not see themselves being born as a Malay person but that they eventually become Malay through their relationships with others. Therefore, I argue that the basis of all social interaction centres on respect since it figures powerfully in the maintenance and negotiation of social relationships. Overall, this study contributes to the current discourse on personhood and to the anthropological inquiry on the concept of respect.
2021-06-28T00:00:00ZShahrin, Shariza WahyunaThis study examines how social relations in a school, and at home, shape primary school children’s understanding of Melayu (Malay) in Brunei Darussalam. Social relations, specifically the child-child, teacher-pupil, and parent-child relationships, are significant because they inform children’s notions of being Malay as well as uncover ideas that are taken for granted by adults. Concurrently, these relationships highlight the fundamental condition of intersubjectivity, as a form of human sociality.
The ethnographic fieldwork for the study took place at a state school between January 2016 until March 2017. While pupils are the main focus of the study, teachers, parents and guardians are also interviewed because of its usefulness in investigating their experiences when they were primary school children themselves in order to document the transformation of ideas due to changing historical circumstances. The methods used are mainly participant observation and interviews as well as casual conversations with both children and adults.
From the data gathered, the major themes that form the research – and is tied together in the Bruneian context – is personhood, Malay, morality, and respect. Children come to understand the concept of Malay, and what it means to be a Brunei Malay Muslim person, through the different ideas and understandings of respect, which is inextricably linked with moral values and hierarchical relations, against a backdrop of state ideology and the Islamic religion. Consequently, what is significant is that children do not see themselves being born as a Malay person but that they eventually become Malay through their relationships with others. Therefore, I argue that the basis of all social interaction centres on respect since it figures powerfully in the maintenance and negotiation of social relationships. Overall, this study contributes to the current discourse on personhood and to the anthropological inquiry on the concept of respect.The struggle, in utero : choice, control and trust in infertility treatment and abortion rights campaigning in IrelandSzabunia, Judithhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/292262024-02-15T03:02:15Z2021-12-01T00:00:00ZIn May 2018, the citizens of Ireland voted to repeal the 8th amendment of the Constitution, thus overturning the ban on abortion that had been in place for over a century. The vote paved the way for a more general debate on the relationship between women, reproductive healthcare and the state, and thereby exposed deeply entrenched struggles over the equation of womanhood with motherhood in the Irish Constitution. These were particularly pressing issues because the government was in the process of writing the first legislation on infertility treatment. This thesis provides insights into an extraordinary moment of transition in the Irish social and legal landscape, ripe with uncertainty, ambiguities and possibilities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with staff in infertility clinics and pro-choice campaigners in Dublin between 2017 and 2018, I follow my research participants as they navigated these highly contested ‘reproductive borderlands’, a term I coin to describe the grey areas where boundaries around reproduction were drawn and redrawn. These processes centred around the question of who was recognised as a patient, something that was articulated through discourses on ‘control’ in the clinics and ‘choice’ in the campaign. My research participants presented these terms as clear-cut and unambiguous. The everyday practices in the clinics, however, revealed a more nuanced picture in which choice and control emerged as powerful rhetorical devices that were multifaceted and continuously under strain. In the face of this disjuncture, discourses on trust were a key repository for speaking about infertility and abortion, issues that were shrouded by interrelated layers of silence and stigma. Through an examination of the interface between trust and evidence in the clinics and trust and storytelling in the campaign, I develop the concept of ‘intimate violence’ to reflect on the difficult process of long-established silence being unsettled.
2021-12-01T00:00:00ZSzabunia, JudithIn May 2018, the citizens of Ireland voted to repeal the 8th amendment of the Constitution, thus overturning the ban on abortion that had been in place for over a century. The vote paved the way for a more general debate on the relationship between women, reproductive healthcare and the state, and thereby exposed deeply entrenched struggles over the equation of womanhood with motherhood in the Irish Constitution. These were particularly pressing issues because the government was in the process of writing the first legislation on infertility treatment. This thesis provides insights into an extraordinary moment of transition in the Irish social and legal landscape, ripe with uncertainty, ambiguities and possibilities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with staff in infertility clinics and pro-choice campaigners in Dublin between 2017 and 2018, I follow my research participants as they navigated these highly contested ‘reproductive borderlands’, a term I coin to describe the grey areas where boundaries around reproduction were drawn and redrawn. These processes centred around the question of who was recognised as a patient, something that was articulated through discourses on ‘control’ in the clinics and ‘choice’ in the campaign. My research participants presented these terms as clear-cut and unambiguous. The everyday practices in the clinics, however, revealed a more nuanced picture in which choice and control emerged as powerful rhetorical devices that were multifaceted and continuously under strain. In the face of this disjuncture, discourses on trust were a key repository for speaking about infertility and abortion, issues that were shrouded by interrelated layers of silence and stigma. Through an examination of the interface between trust and evidence in the clinics and trust and storytelling in the campaign, I develop the concept of ‘intimate violence’ to reflect on the difficult process of long-established silence being unsettled.Timescapes of independence : temporality, utopia and living the future in ScotlandManley, Gabrielahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/292082024-02-15T18:35:49Z2022-06-13T00:00:00ZBased on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork amongst Edinburgh Scottish National Party (SNP) activists, this thesis argues that the future forms a key element of political life and plays a greater role than the past in moving political activists into action. It shows how traditional political anthropological studies reliant on socio-historical analysis provide insufficient insight into emerging political movements. Instead, it proposes a temporal analytical framework that centralises future-oriented temporalities in political anthropological studies. This uncovers the ways in which people are ‘pulled’ rather than ‘pushed’ into action, and in doing so highlights new relationships, affects, and time-maps that would otherwise remain hidden in political action. Drawing from contemporary work of the anthropology of the future (Bryant and Knight 2019a) this thesis analyses the imaginations of the future that drive SNP activists to action, giving shape to Scotland’s potential independent future. It is these imaginations of utopian/dystopian futures that incites SNP activists to believe in, and campaign for, Scottish independence. The future is revealed as a site of intense political contestation that affects and is affected by the present, concrete yet continuously transformed through the everyday affective experiences of activists. In this way, I argue that Scottish independence is best understood as a timescape comprised of both present and future as well as the complex temporal interactions between the two.
2022-06-13T00:00:00ZManley, GabrielaBased on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork amongst Edinburgh Scottish National Party (SNP) activists, this thesis argues that the future forms a key element of political life and plays a greater role than the past in moving political activists into action. It shows how traditional political anthropological studies reliant on socio-historical analysis provide insufficient insight into emerging political movements. Instead, it proposes a temporal analytical framework that centralises future-oriented temporalities in political anthropological studies. This uncovers the ways in which people are ‘pulled’ rather than ‘pushed’ into action, and in doing so highlights new relationships, affects, and time-maps that would otherwise remain hidden in political action. Drawing from contemporary work of the anthropology of the future (Bryant and Knight 2019a) this thesis analyses the imaginations of the future that drive SNP activists to action, giving shape to Scotland’s potential independent future. It is these imaginations of utopian/dystopian futures that incites SNP activists to believe in, and campaign for, Scottish independence. The future is revealed as a site of intense political contestation that affects and is affected by the present, concrete yet continuously transformed through the everyday affective experiences of activists. In this way, I argue that Scottish independence is best understood as a timescape comprised of both present and future as well as the complex temporal interactions between the two.Navigating to the Island of Hope - a Pacific response to globalisation, environmental degradation and climate changeGard, Rowan A.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/290832024-03-07T16:59:03Z2020-07-27T00:00:00ZNavigating to the Island of Hope - A Pacific Response to Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Economic Globalisation in Oceania explores and seeks to understand indigenous responses to the powerful forces of globalisation and climate change through ethnographic research and cultural analysis spanning more than eight years in totality, and the Pacific renaissance concept of the Island of Hope. The Island of Hope serves as a lens, and is of interest both from a scholarly perspective and a praxis perspective, as the Island of Hope is a complex amalgamation and synthesis of Pacific ethics elements, economic justice, communal interconnectedness, cosmology and the Christian idea of heaven on Earth. This dissertation, just as the Island of Hope itself does, aims to critique and offer a unique perspective on a motivating and unifying principle in Oceania, which extends from the personal to international in scope, and explores the political and economic, the religious and spiritual, the local and global, as well as nature conservation and climate change activism. Global connections dictate global obligations.
2020-07-27T00:00:00ZGard, Rowan A.Navigating to the Island of Hope - A Pacific Response to Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Economic Globalisation in Oceania explores and seeks to understand indigenous responses to the powerful forces of globalisation and climate change through ethnographic research and cultural analysis spanning more than eight years in totality, and the Pacific renaissance concept of the Island of Hope. The Island of Hope serves as a lens, and is of interest both from a scholarly perspective and a praxis perspective, as the Island of Hope is a complex amalgamation and synthesis of Pacific ethics elements, economic justice, communal interconnectedness, cosmology and the Christian idea of heaven on Earth. This dissertation, just as the Island of Hope itself does, aims to critique and offer a unique perspective on a motivating and unifying principle in Oceania, which extends from the personal to international in scope, and explores the political and economic, the religious and spiritual, the local and global, as well as nature conservation and climate change activism. Global connections dictate global obligations.Articulating life-itself : growth, place and movement on Mugaba (Rennell) in the Solomon IslandsBrowne, Mia Kimberlyhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/290822024-02-15T03:06:41Z2020-12-02T00:00:00ZMugaba (Rennell) and Mugiki (Bellona) in the Solomon Islands, is the site of multiple stories, to which different values are given through different registers of 'life-itself'. Research expeditions that renamed Mugaba's life forms would later provide the compelling qualities to merit East Rennell as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (and later as World Heritage in Danger). Earlier ethnographic accounts that endeavoured to capture the last glimpses of a pre-Christian culture, represented both Euro-American genetic legacies, and Rennellese and Bellonese descriptions of people 'coming out of place'. Fieldwork on East Rennell spanned over two years, exploring how Rennellese people have folded these converging stories into their analyses of historical becoming, creating novel articulations of life and its processes. Under the research theme 'Life Itself in the Pacific' at the Centre for Pacific Studies, this work takes Rennellese descriptions of life (human and non-human others) and its contingencies as its starting point. It explores Rennellese articulations of Life-Itself, how people's growth is also enabled by different kinds of movements and flows - those that have elsewhere been qualified as 'history', 'kinship', 'gender', and even 'ecology' - to examine what is at risk in an 'endangered' World Heritage Site.
2020-12-02T00:00:00ZBrowne, Mia KimberlyMugaba (Rennell) and Mugiki (Bellona) in the Solomon Islands, is the site of multiple stories, to which different values are given through different registers of 'life-itself'. Research expeditions that renamed Mugaba's life forms would later provide the compelling qualities to merit East Rennell as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (and later as World Heritage in Danger). Earlier ethnographic accounts that endeavoured to capture the last glimpses of a pre-Christian culture, represented both Euro-American genetic legacies, and Rennellese and Bellonese descriptions of people 'coming out of place'. Fieldwork on East Rennell spanned over two years, exploring how Rennellese people have folded these converging stories into their analyses of historical becoming, creating novel articulations of life and its processes. Under the research theme 'Life Itself in the Pacific' at the Centre for Pacific Studies, this work takes Rennellese descriptions of life (human and non-human others) and its contingencies as its starting point. It explores Rennellese articulations of Life-Itself, how people's growth is also enabled by different kinds of movements and flows - those that have elsewhere been qualified as 'history', 'kinship', 'gender', and even 'ecology' - to examine what is at risk in an 'endangered' World Heritage Site.Infrastructure in Melanesia : imaginaries, experiences and practices of road making in Buka IslandRosolowsky, Marlit Felizitashttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/290812024-01-29T10:45:27Z2021-06-28T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores Melanesian concepts of roads based on multilocal ethnographic research on different kinds of roads in Buka Island, the northern island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. It explores how different modes of socialities, politics, and future imaginaries have to be negotiated in the context of infrastructural transformation and varying degrees of infrastructural fragility. Taking the idioms for roads like maroro in Haku dialect and rot in Tok Pisin as an analytical vantage point, my thesis analyses how people in Buka conceptualize, build, maintain, and move along different types of roads, including garden roads (beaten footpaths), coral roads, and sealed sections of a highway. It compares the different socialities, politics, and imaginaries these roads generate and the ways in which they intersect and mutually inform each other. Inspired by the anthropology of roads and infrastructure, I argue that Melanesian socialities and politics and their continuously changing articulations can be addressed particularly well by looking at infrastructural transformations, specifically of roads. In addition, this thesis contributes a Melanesian perspective to the anthroplogy of roads and infrastructure by experimenting with the question of what practices and imaginaries create roads and what makes them infrastructural in Buka. It demonstrates the importance of taking other concepts of roads and types of roads into account when seeking to understand the changes large-scale public infrastructure projects like highway construction bring about for people.
2021-06-28T00:00:00ZRosolowsky, Marlit FelizitasThis thesis explores Melanesian concepts of roads based on multilocal ethnographic research on different kinds of roads in Buka Island, the northern island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. It explores how different modes of socialities, politics, and future imaginaries have to be negotiated in the context of infrastructural transformation and varying degrees of infrastructural fragility. Taking the idioms for roads like maroro in Haku dialect and rot in Tok Pisin as an analytical vantage point, my thesis analyses how people in Buka conceptualize, build, maintain, and move along different types of roads, including garden roads (beaten footpaths), coral roads, and sealed sections of a highway. It compares the different socialities, politics, and imaginaries these roads generate and the ways in which they intersect and mutually inform each other. Inspired by the anthropology of roads and infrastructure, I argue that Melanesian socialities and politics and their continuously changing articulations can be addressed particularly well by looking at infrastructural transformations, specifically of roads. In addition, this thesis contributes a Melanesian perspective to the anthroplogy of roads and infrastructure by experimenting with the question of what practices and imaginaries create roads and what makes them infrastructural in Buka. It demonstrates the importance of taking other concepts of roads and types of roads into account when seeking to understand the changes large-scale public infrastructure projects like highway construction bring about for people.The promise of Andean khipu transcriptions : a multi-scale investigationMedrano, Manuel Antoniohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/287612023-11-25T03:02:32Z2022-06-13T00:00:00ZAmong the most distinctive documents from the early-colonial Andes are Spanish-language transcriptions of information rendered, in various settings, from khipus—undeciphered knotted string devices that served the function of writing in the Inka Empire (c. 1400–1532 CE). The surviving khipu transcriptions, sometimes also referred to as “paper khipus,” have informed decades of historical research and decipherment projects, which in large part have foregrounded the close study of individual transcriptions. However, how might the conclusions reached from these documents evolve when they are instead studied from a variety of distances and interpretive vantage points—close and far; qualitative and quantitative? Informed by currents in performance theory, semiotics, and the digital humanities, this thesis presents close reading and quantitative aggregation as mutually reinforcing strategies for the study of early colonial khipu transcriptions, employing what Ted Underwood has called a “juxtaposition of scales.” It is argued, by way of three practical case studies, that a multi-scale approach to studying paper khipus enables as much the revelation of new ethnohistoric insights as it does the assessment of previous hypotheses derived from close reading.
Following a historical introduction to khipus and their colonial-era transcriptions, the first case study finds that scribal corrections in a handful of paper khipus may preserve traces of the original “readings” of knotted strings by Andean cord keepers. The second case study zooms out to analyse action verb usage across 10,000 lines of digitized khipu transcriptions, adding new contours to previous narratives of early-colonial economic transformation first proposed by scholars including John Murra and others. Finally, the third case study presents a blueprint for the ambitious task of searching for matches between the surviving transcriptions and individual khipus in existing collections, focusing on a khipu studied by the author in the Museum der Kulturen (Museum of Cultures), Basel, Switzerland. The multi-scale approach is discussed throughout as a tool for ethnohistorians investigating other records of cross-cultural encounter.
2022-06-13T00:00:00ZMedrano, Manuel AntonioAmong the most distinctive documents from the early-colonial Andes are Spanish-language transcriptions of information rendered, in various settings, from khipus—undeciphered knotted string devices that served the function of writing in the Inka Empire (c. 1400–1532 CE). The surviving khipu transcriptions, sometimes also referred to as “paper khipus,” have informed decades of historical research and decipherment projects, which in large part have foregrounded the close study of individual transcriptions. However, how might the conclusions reached from these documents evolve when they are instead studied from a variety of distances and interpretive vantage points—close and far; qualitative and quantitative? Informed by currents in performance theory, semiotics, and the digital humanities, this thesis presents close reading and quantitative aggregation as mutually reinforcing strategies for the study of early colonial khipu transcriptions, employing what Ted Underwood has called a “juxtaposition of scales.” It is argued, by way of three practical case studies, that a multi-scale approach to studying paper khipus enables as much the revelation of new ethnohistoric insights as it does the assessment of previous hypotheses derived from close reading.
Following a historical introduction to khipus and their colonial-era transcriptions, the first case study finds that scribal corrections in a handful of paper khipus may preserve traces of the original “readings” of knotted strings by Andean cord keepers. The second case study zooms out to analyse action verb usage across 10,000 lines of digitized khipu transcriptions, adding new contours to previous narratives of early-colonial economic transformation first proposed by scholars including John Murra and others. Finally, the third case study presents a blueprint for the ambitious task of searching for matches between the surviving transcriptions and individual khipus in existing collections, focusing on a khipu studied by the author in the Museum der Kulturen (Museum of Cultures), Basel, Switzerland. The multi-scale approach is discussed throughout as a tool for ethnohistorians investigating other records of cross-cultural encounter.Involuted self : the making of elite students in an honored college in Northwest ChinaZhang, Xiaoyanghttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/285942023-11-01T16:24:51Z2023-11-29T00:00:00ZAbstract redacted
2023-11-29T00:00:00ZZhang, XiaoyangAbstract redactedDeciphering the multilevel Khipu structures : a mixed-methods triangulation modelled on the communal Khipu Boards of Mangas and CastaKoulouri, Mariahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/282602024-02-02T10:00:45Z2023-11-29T00:00:00ZSince the Middle Horizon the Khipu, or cord writing, of Peru has employed standardised signs. The Inka empire further extended the Khipu for the recording of various aspects of mundane and ritual life. Later, hybrid Khipu combining alphabetic with Indigenous Khipu script, such as the Khipu Boards of Mangas and Casta, were used in the central Andes from the sixteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century. Using a multidisciplinary approach, I triangulated archaeometry (statistical analysis) of the first digital record of the alphabetic Khipu from the community of Mangas in Ancash, with ethnoarchaeology and ethnomethodology at the community of San Pedro de Casta in Huarochirí of Lima. I compare the Mangas Khipu Board with Middle-Horizon Khipu and I look at the use of Khipu Boards through material and ethnographic analysis. Prioritising Indigenous perspectives, I explore the multidimensionality of work tribute registered on the hybrid Khipu of Mangas and Casta to detect sign redundancy and offer an interpretation of their meaning (semantic decipherment). I demonstrate how non-hierarchical structures have been overlooked with the assumption that Khipu structures are hierarchically nested. I develop complex ethnomodels, applicable to other Khipu exhibiting multilevel structures beyond those of the ethnographic context, for the purpose of aiding Khipu methodology and towards a ‘multilevel turn’ in mixed-methods anthropology.
2023-11-29T00:00:00ZKoulouri, MariaSince the Middle Horizon the Khipu, or cord writing, of Peru has employed standardised signs. The Inka empire further extended the Khipu for the recording of various aspects of mundane and ritual life. Later, hybrid Khipu combining alphabetic with Indigenous Khipu script, such as the Khipu Boards of Mangas and Casta, were used in the central Andes from the sixteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century. Using a multidisciplinary approach, I triangulated archaeometry (statistical analysis) of the first digital record of the alphabetic Khipu from the community of Mangas in Ancash, with ethnoarchaeology and ethnomethodology at the community of San Pedro de Casta in Huarochirí of Lima. I compare the Mangas Khipu Board with Middle-Horizon Khipu and I look at the use of Khipu Boards through material and ethnographic analysis. Prioritising Indigenous perspectives, I explore the multidimensionality of work tribute registered on the hybrid Khipu of Mangas and Casta to detect sign redundancy and offer an interpretation of their meaning (semantic decipherment). I demonstrate how non-hierarchical structures have been overlooked with the assumption that Khipu structures are hierarchically nested. I develop complex ethnomodels, applicable to other Khipu exhibiting multilevel structures beyond those of the ethnographic context, for the purpose of aiding Khipu methodology and towards a ‘multilevel turn’ in mixed-methods anthropology.Title redactedKawasmi, Manarhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/280222023-07-26T02:02:02Z2023-11-29T00:00:00ZAbstract redacted
2023-11-29T00:00:00ZKawasmi, ManarAbstract redactedBeing a viviente : confusion, personhood and autochthony in Tweo Coldita (Quellón, Chiloé, Chile)Saavedra Gómez, José Joaquínhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/280212023-07-26T02:05:32Z2023-11-29T00:00:00ZThis thesis addresses notions of personhood in Tweo Coldita, an indigenous community located on Coldita island (Chiloé). It addresses relationality, selfhood and autochthony by means of the Colditan notion of “viviente”, “a person who is living” in spaces between forest and tide. These spaces or “campos”, which Colditans strive to keep open, constitute a “lived world of confusion” from where the viviente emerges. Confusion describes how moving “borders” (environmental, social, temporal and of selfhood) tend to overlap, threatening to drive the viviente and its environment towards a lack of differentiation. To be a proper viviente is a constant struggle in a mythicized world. I argue that the latter’s confusing nature, along that of the vivientes themselves, can be elicited from a “mythical schema” stemming from a Chilote version of the Treng-Treng and Kay-Kay Vilú myth. In this narration, a catastrophe makes the sea and the lands clash, and a lonely, mad man is left in a submerged world. This resembles Tweo Colditans’ notions on confusion: colliding environmental elements growing over the campos and loneliness as a limit for the viviente, a person that is constantly menaced with being turned inwards and that must strive to relate to others and reproduce a world. Because of this mythification, a doubt lingers about the viviente’s origin. This doubt is reflected in the relationship with dwelling places, the campos, in the form of a confusion within that emerges as a feeling of “uncanniness”. I propose that the haunting of the uncanny in Tweo Coldita has to do with the problem of autochthony, the impossibility to fully belong, making the constitution of vivientes an impossible task. The viviente is constantly diluting into confusing selfhood through the very mythicized structuring of the world enacted from the campos. These Colditans notions allow to discuss relationality, personhood and the self, and recent descriptions of Chiloé as defined by the tradition/modernity dyad.
2023-11-29T00:00:00ZSaavedra Gómez, José JoaquínThis thesis addresses notions of personhood in Tweo Coldita, an indigenous community located on Coldita island (Chiloé). It addresses relationality, selfhood and autochthony by means of the Colditan notion of “viviente”, “a person who is living” in spaces between forest and tide. These spaces or “campos”, which Colditans strive to keep open, constitute a “lived world of confusion” from where the viviente emerges. Confusion describes how moving “borders” (environmental, social, temporal and of selfhood) tend to overlap, threatening to drive the viviente and its environment towards a lack of differentiation. To be a proper viviente is a constant struggle in a mythicized world. I argue that the latter’s confusing nature, along that of the vivientes themselves, can be elicited from a “mythical schema” stemming from a Chilote version of the Treng-Treng and Kay-Kay Vilú myth. In this narration, a catastrophe makes the sea and the lands clash, and a lonely, mad man is left in a submerged world. This resembles Tweo Colditans’ notions on confusion: colliding environmental elements growing over the campos and loneliness as a limit for the viviente, a person that is constantly menaced with being turned inwards and that must strive to relate to others and reproduce a world. Because of this mythification, a doubt lingers about the viviente’s origin. This doubt is reflected in the relationship with dwelling places, the campos, in the form of a confusion within that emerges as a feeling of “uncanniness”. I propose that the haunting of the uncanny in Tweo Coldita has to do with the problem of autochthony, the impossibility to fully belong, making the constitution of vivientes an impossible task. The viviente is constantly diluting into confusing selfhood through the very mythicized structuring of the world enacted from the campos. These Colditans notions allow to discuss relationality, personhood and the self, and recent descriptions of Chiloé as defined by the tradition/modernity dyad.The bad guys with the good solutions? Energy elites, transitions, and the 'good life' in NorwaySeeger, Anna Raphaela Kyra Katharinahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/275832023-07-06T21:53:41Z2023-06-12T00:00:00ZIn this thesis I examine how strategically situated energy industry professionals conceptualise and act upon energy transitions in Norway. Analytically I refer to interlocutors as ‘energy elites’. This allows me to highlight their shared socio-economic, educational, and professional positionalities while showing key distinctions in their perceptions of energy.
I draw on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Oslo between 2018-2020 where I engaged with over 100 industry leaders and experts. I conducted fieldwork at the formal office spaces of Norway’s major energy corporations and in the private spaces that interlocutors inhabited. This allows me to make three main contributions:
Firstly, I use my detailed ethnographic insights to counter dominant scholarly presumptions that see elites as resisting socio-economic changes in order to preserve their own status. I demonstrate that the way my interlocutors engaged with energy transitions involved personal, societal, and ethical considerations of how energy production can ensure a ‘good life’. Thus, I argue that strategic pursuits alone cannot account for the varied ways in which industry professionals engaged with energy transitions.
Secondly, I expand on the regional literature by critically examining dominant narratives of a ‘successful’ Norwegian energy model. I analyse how increasingly industry professionals scrutinised the socio-environmental sustainability of their hydrocarbon and renewable energy production in light of growing climate change concerns.
Lastly, I contribute to the study of energy transitions, as I analyse them as liminal, in-between processes marked by contestation and ambiguity. I suggest that various energy imaginaries make energy transitions uncertain ‘rites of passages’ without clearly defined end goals or pathways. By advancing scholarship on elites, energy, and transitions, my study demonstrates that contested visions of energy futures are united in their desires for a ‘good life’.
2023-06-12T00:00:00ZSeeger, Anna Raphaela Kyra KatharinaIn this thesis I examine how strategically situated energy industry professionals conceptualise and act upon energy transitions in Norway. Analytically I refer to interlocutors as ‘energy elites’. This allows me to highlight their shared socio-economic, educational, and professional positionalities while showing key distinctions in their perceptions of energy.
I draw on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Oslo between 2018-2020 where I engaged with over 100 industry leaders and experts. I conducted fieldwork at the formal office spaces of Norway’s major energy corporations and in the private spaces that interlocutors inhabited. This allows me to make three main contributions:
Firstly, I use my detailed ethnographic insights to counter dominant scholarly presumptions that see elites as resisting socio-economic changes in order to preserve their own status. I demonstrate that the way my interlocutors engaged with energy transitions involved personal, societal, and ethical considerations of how energy production can ensure a ‘good life’. Thus, I argue that strategic pursuits alone cannot account for the varied ways in which industry professionals engaged with energy transitions.
Secondly, I expand on the regional literature by critically examining dominant narratives of a ‘successful’ Norwegian energy model. I analyse how increasingly industry professionals scrutinised the socio-environmental sustainability of their hydrocarbon and renewable energy production in light of growing climate change concerns.
Lastly, I contribute to the study of energy transitions, as I analyse them as liminal, in-between processes marked by contestation and ambiguity. I suggest that various energy imaginaries make energy transitions uncertain ‘rites of passages’ without clearly defined end goals or pathways. By advancing scholarship on elites, energy, and transitions, my study demonstrates that contested visions of energy futures are united in their desires for a ‘good life’.Respectful witness : a midwife adopts an anthropological view on her practiceMcHugh, Nessa Maryhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/275262023-05-09T02:06:30Z2023-06-12T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores midwifery in the United Kingdom (UK) from my perspective both as a midwife and a member of the Association of Radical Midwives (ARM). The rhetoric of contemporary midwifery and the ARM speaks to a relational and social model of care which focusses on the pregnant woman, her baby, and her family.
However, childbirth in the UK is increasingly complex and there are tensions between the provision of care in a medically dominated health care system and the ability of midwives to work as advocates for women. Central to this tension is the self-perception of midwives as a professional group, and their position in a care hierarchy. The majority of midwifery care in the UK is provided through the NHS, although a minority of midwives work outside but alongside the NHS maternity care system.
The ARM was founded in the late 1970s in the UK as a support group for midwives who were concerned about the erosion of their professional role and identity. It remains active and has evolved into a grassroots midwifery organisation which has been influential on the development of UK midwifery over the last forty years. Focussing on the ARM provided me with the lens to examine the challenges that have shaped midwifery and therefore influenced my own practice experiences. To achieve this, I have taken a historical perspective, critically reflecting back on my own practice, the writings of the ARM and a range of ethnographic observations and interviews with midwives who were members of the ARM.
2023-06-12T00:00:00ZMcHugh, Nessa MaryThis thesis explores midwifery in the United Kingdom (UK) from my perspective both as a midwife and a member of the Association of Radical Midwives (ARM). The rhetoric of contemporary midwifery and the ARM speaks to a relational and social model of care which focusses on the pregnant woman, her baby, and her family.
However, childbirth in the UK is increasingly complex and there are tensions between the provision of care in a medically dominated health care system and the ability of midwives to work as advocates for women. Central to this tension is the self-perception of midwives as a professional group, and their position in a care hierarchy. The majority of midwifery care in the UK is provided through the NHS, although a minority of midwives work outside but alongside the NHS maternity care system.
The ARM was founded in the late 1970s in the UK as a support group for midwives who were concerned about the erosion of their professional role and identity. It remains active and has evolved into a grassroots midwifery organisation which has been influential on the development of UK midwifery over the last forty years. Focussing on the ARM provided me with the lens to examine the challenges that have shaped midwifery and therefore influenced my own practice experiences. To achieve this, I have taken a historical perspective, critically reflecting back on my own practice, the writings of the ARM and a range of ethnographic observations and interviews with midwives who were members of the ARM.The terms of being an artist in the early 21st century : the struggle, endurance and affect of visual and performing artists in the UKYang, Yanghttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/272762023-03-29T02:04:57Z2022-06-13T00:00:00ZThe fact that artists struggle financially and affectively might not surprise many people in the UK, but what is less known is how they put up with those struggles and why they struggle. To explore these issues, this thesis presents an in-depth ethnographic analysis of the struggle, endurance and affect of visual and performing art practitioners in the UK. The ethnographic data are collected through both shadowing ten UK-based visual and performing art practitioners as well as participating in and observing art events during fourteen-months fieldwork between May 2018 and September 2019. This thesis challenges two established explanations of artists’ struggles: struggles are the only thing that people should know about artists; struggles might actually be what artists want, given that art is the thing they want to live for and die for. Instead, I argue that UK-based artists’ struggles can be understood as an integral part of “the ‘terms’ of being an artist in the early 21st century”. That is, these artists model themselves on historical artist figures, the terms of which are freeing themselves from the domination of “Enlightenment-modernity-capitalism” but entailing economic and affective struggles. They sometimes also follow two alternative imperatives (pro-lifestyle and pro-equality), but the more they try to follow two or more contradictory imperatives, the more their efforts come to nothing. By examining themes such as poverty, meritocracy, unconscious bias, relationality and spontaneity, this thesis further contributes to the comparative studies and the interdisciplinary discussions of endurance, affect, inequality, art and human feelings under liberal capitalism.
2022-06-13T00:00:00ZYang, YangThe fact that artists struggle financially and affectively might not surprise many people in the UK, but what is less known is how they put up with those struggles and why they struggle. To explore these issues, this thesis presents an in-depth ethnographic analysis of the struggle, endurance and affect of visual and performing art practitioners in the UK. The ethnographic data are collected through both shadowing ten UK-based visual and performing art practitioners as well as participating in and observing art events during fourteen-months fieldwork between May 2018 and September 2019. This thesis challenges two established explanations of artists’ struggles: struggles are the only thing that people should know about artists; struggles might actually be what artists want, given that art is the thing they want to live for and die for. Instead, I argue that UK-based artists’ struggles can be understood as an integral part of “the ‘terms’ of being an artist in the early 21st century”. That is, these artists model themselves on historical artist figures, the terms of which are freeing themselves from the domination of “Enlightenment-modernity-capitalism” but entailing economic and affective struggles. They sometimes also follow two alternative imperatives (pro-lifestyle and pro-equality), but the more they try to follow two or more contradictory imperatives, the more their efforts come to nothing. By examining themes such as poverty, meritocracy, unconscious bias, relationality and spontaneity, this thesis further contributes to the comparative studies and the interdisciplinary discussions of endurance, affect, inequality, art and human feelings under liberal capitalism.Truth, action, and transition on an energy frontline in Lancashire, UKO'Brien, Sarahhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/271642023-03-14T03:02:35Z2023-06-12T00:00:00ZBased on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the northern English region of Lancashire, this doctoral research focuses on practices of truth-making and relations of responsibility within a community resisting the development of a controversial hydraulic fracturing project at Preston New Road (PNR). I explore their lived experiences of protest and energy extraction at a time of anthropogenic climate change and intensifying calls for energy transitions. I examine how collective and intimate encounters with a perceived ‘system’ on the frontline lead my interlocutors to ask fundamental questions about the reality in which they live. Through everyday frontline practices, I show how interlocutors collectively establish, connect, and evidence different dimensions of truth as they resist the extraction of hydrocarbons and search for alternative ways to live. People enter, act through, and leave relations of responsibility to bring about a reality in which they want to live. I thus suggest that examining relations of responsibility and truth as a value that is realised through action can help us understand spaces of conflict and confrontation. Through protesting, monitoring, and maintaining a collective presence at PNR, interlocutors ethically and materially attempt to separate themselves from the hydrocarbon extraction. In doing so, they endeavour to create a rightful reality founded on the generative notions of truth, action, and responsibility. My ethnographic analysis therefore proposes that the energy frontline at PNR can be apprehended as an onto-epistemic frontline where matters of truth set the world in motion. I suggest that when scholars recognise truth as a matter of representation, creative transformation, and persuasive imagination, we can better identify and understand conflicts and possibilities for change.
2023-06-12T00:00:00ZO'Brien, SarahBased on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the northern English region of Lancashire, this doctoral research focuses on practices of truth-making and relations of responsibility within a community resisting the development of a controversial hydraulic fracturing project at Preston New Road (PNR). I explore their lived experiences of protest and energy extraction at a time of anthropogenic climate change and intensifying calls for energy transitions. I examine how collective and intimate encounters with a perceived ‘system’ on the frontline lead my interlocutors to ask fundamental questions about the reality in which they live. Through everyday frontline practices, I show how interlocutors collectively establish, connect, and evidence different dimensions of truth as they resist the extraction of hydrocarbons and search for alternative ways to live. People enter, act through, and leave relations of responsibility to bring about a reality in which they want to live. I thus suggest that examining relations of responsibility and truth as a value that is realised through action can help us understand spaces of conflict and confrontation. Through protesting, monitoring, and maintaining a collective presence at PNR, interlocutors ethically and materially attempt to separate themselves from the hydrocarbon extraction. In doing so, they endeavour to create a rightful reality founded on the generative notions of truth, action, and responsibility. My ethnographic analysis therefore proposes that the energy frontline at PNR can be apprehended as an onto-epistemic frontline where matters of truth set the world in motion. I suggest that when scholars recognise truth as a matter of representation, creative transformation, and persuasive imagination, we can better identify and understand conflicts and possibilities for change.The Baya and the Mulao : family, gender and ancestral traditions in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County, ChinaWu, Roujinghttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/254022023-06-22T21:30:34Z2022-06-13T00:00:00ZThe villagers in Shangnan’an and Xianan’an, two villages in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, come mainly from an ethnic minority group named the Mulao; further, most of these villagers share the surname Yin. The Baya are female shamans who conduct rituals for these villagers to resolve various personal and familial problems. Drawing on a 14-month stretch of fieldwork in these two villages, this thesis investigates the reasons the Baya have persisted for many generations in this region, despite their practices being forbidden in the period from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Based on an analysis of the villagers’ kin relationships as well as gender practices in the region, this work argues that the Baya act as mediators between the villagers and their deceased relatives. Their rituals connect the villagers with their ancestors that help tighten kinship bonds under circumstances of changing kin relationships as well as in the face of recent changes to the status of women. The Baya’s rituals also highlight the retention of patrilineal systems in the villages, revealing those traditions that remain even as the influence of patrilineal systems weakens. This thesis thus offers a better understanding of the Mulao, as the Baya are intimately linked to Mulao life in many ways. The importance of this research is not simply in regard to the rituals of the Baya and their connections with kinship and gender: this thesis also contributes to the overall anthropology of China, advancing research on Chinese ethnic minority groups, rural China, and shamanism among Chinese ethnic minority groups.
2022-06-13T00:00:00ZWu, RoujingThe villagers in Shangnan’an and Xianan’an, two villages in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, come mainly from an ethnic minority group named the Mulao; further, most of these villagers share the surname Yin. The Baya are female shamans who conduct rituals for these villagers to resolve various personal and familial problems. Drawing on a 14-month stretch of fieldwork in these two villages, this thesis investigates the reasons the Baya have persisted for many generations in this region, despite their practices being forbidden in the period from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. Based on an analysis of the villagers’ kin relationships as well as gender practices in the region, this work argues that the Baya act as mediators between the villagers and their deceased relatives. Their rituals connect the villagers with their ancestors that help tighten kinship bonds under circumstances of changing kin relationships as well as in the face of recent changes to the status of women. The Baya’s rituals also highlight the retention of patrilineal systems in the villages, revealing those traditions that remain even as the influence of patrilineal systems weakens. This thesis thus offers a better understanding of the Mulao, as the Baya are intimately linked to Mulao life in many ways. The importance of this research is not simply in regard to the rituals of the Baya and their connections with kinship and gender: this thesis also contributes to the overall anthropology of China, advancing research on Chinese ethnic minority groups, rural China, and shamanism among Chinese ethnic minority groups.Bursting out of place : island life on Samothraki after the delugeKotsira, Elenihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/234952021-07-20T14:41:58Z2021-06-28T00:00:00ZThis thesis is the result of the first ethnographic research in Social Anthropology taking place on Samothraki, the northernmost island of Greece. Remote by location, Samothraki is populated by less than 3,000 residents in a surface area of 180km² and a remarkable – for its circumference – altitude of 1,611m.
The thesis is preoccupied with a catastrophic rainfall that flooded extensive parts of the island overnight on 26 September 2017 and follows the recovery process until 31 December 2018, when my fieldwork was concluded. The extremity as well as the unprecedentedness of this natural disaster, made the recovery from it an emotional, environmental and administrative challenge, while it also exposed pre-existing perceptions of the islanders about their surrounding environment and their interaction with it. Through a comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative data I collected, I relate these perceptions to the magnitude of the disaster and, furthermore, to the actions that were taken in its aftermath for both reconstruction and prevention of future such incidents. Yet, raising consensus among the islanders and paving the way forward, was subjected to the limitations of state administration and the inefficiencies of disaster management in Greece, as this can be also evidenced by natural disasters that hit other parts of the country during that period and which are brought into the discussion. Simultaneously, plans for the expansion of the tourist sector and further capitalisation on the island’s natural resources, pose as an imminent threat to a landscape that is already suffering from environmental degradation.
The deluge on Samothraki, then, becomes a case study about how island communities in Greece and, more broadly, in Europe can cope with extreme weather phenomena, occurring with increased frequency in the era of climate crisis, and how the subsequent states of emergency can be a potential advantage to restoring environmental balance.
2021-06-28T00:00:00ZKotsira, EleniThis thesis is the result of the first ethnographic research in Social Anthropology taking place on Samothraki, the northernmost island of Greece. Remote by location, Samothraki is populated by less than 3,000 residents in a surface area of 180km² and a remarkable – for its circumference – altitude of 1,611m.
The thesis is preoccupied with a catastrophic rainfall that flooded extensive parts of the island overnight on 26 September 2017 and follows the recovery process until 31 December 2018, when my fieldwork was concluded. The extremity as well as the unprecedentedness of this natural disaster, made the recovery from it an emotional, environmental and administrative challenge, while it also exposed pre-existing perceptions of the islanders about their surrounding environment and their interaction with it. Through a comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative data I collected, I relate these perceptions to the magnitude of the disaster and, furthermore, to the actions that were taken in its aftermath for both reconstruction and prevention of future such incidents. Yet, raising consensus among the islanders and paving the way forward, was subjected to the limitations of state administration and the inefficiencies of disaster management in Greece, as this can be also evidenced by natural disasters that hit other parts of the country during that period and which are brought into the discussion. Simultaneously, plans for the expansion of the tourist sector and further capitalisation on the island’s natural resources, pose as an imminent threat to a landscape that is already suffering from environmental degradation.
The deluge on Samothraki, then, becomes a case study about how island communities in Greece and, more broadly, in Europe can cope with extreme weather phenomena, occurring with increased frequency in the era of climate crisis, and how the subsequent states of emergency can be a potential advantage to restoring environmental balance.Ambiguity, nostalgia, dialectic : Saharan nation-states and the legacy of nomadic pastoralismPorges, Matthewhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/231872021-07-21T14:36:11Z2021-06-28T00:00:00Z2021-06-28T00:00:00ZPorges, MatthewTranslating identities : 'being a missionary' in Papua New GuineaRoberts, E. Mei-Lihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/221342024-01-30T03:06:52Z2006-01-01T00:00:00ZMany studies of missionaries have taken an historical perspective,
looking particularly at missionaries’ role in colonialism. However,
missionaries are still very much part of contemporary Papua New
Guinea (PNG), with a significant number of expatriate missionary
groups working in PNG. This thesis is a study of a present day
mission in PNG, SIL International, formerly known as the Summer
Institute of Linguistics (SIL). It examines the way in which the
mission community is constructed and the boundaries and divisions
within the community itself. It attempts to challenge some of the
stereotypes of missionaries and show that there are different views of
what it is to ‘be a missionary’ even within the missionary community
itself. I focus particularly on what it means to ‘be a missionary’ and
the ambiguities and ambivalences between the ideals and realities of
mission work.
The focus of the study was on SIL members themselves and their
identities as missionaries rather than the effect of their missionising
on others. This is examined through a number of different themes.
Debates about the fence surrounding the mission station highlighted
the way in which it created both a physical and a symbolic boundary
between those living inside the fence and the people living outside of
it. Related to this were debates regarding the mission station,
Ukarumpa and how SIL members should ‘communicate the gospel’.
SIL’s main goal is Bible translation and the thesis explores the
challenges and problems of translation, both the practical aspects of
Bible translation and translating between cultures. Literacy work is
also an important part of SIL’s goal and is shown to be especially
significant in maintaining a good relationship with the PNG
government. Finally, notions of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’, particularly
in relation to the children of missionaries, and the notion of ‘citizens
of heaven’ is shown to help shape SIL members’ identities as
‘missionaries’.
2006-01-01T00:00:00ZRoberts, E. Mei-LiMany studies of missionaries have taken an historical perspective,
looking particularly at missionaries’ role in colonialism. However,
missionaries are still very much part of contemporary Papua New
Guinea (PNG), with a significant number of expatriate missionary
groups working in PNG. This thesis is a study of a present day
mission in PNG, SIL International, formerly known as the Summer
Institute of Linguistics (SIL). It examines the way in which the
mission community is constructed and the boundaries and divisions
within the community itself. It attempts to challenge some of the
stereotypes of missionaries and show that there are different views of
what it is to ‘be a missionary’ even within the missionary community
itself. I focus particularly on what it means to ‘be a missionary’ and
the ambiguities and ambivalences between the ideals and realities of
mission work.
The focus of the study was on SIL members themselves and their
identities as missionaries rather than the effect of their missionising
on others. This is examined through a number of different themes.
Debates about the fence surrounding the mission station highlighted
the way in which it created both a physical and a symbolic boundary
between those living inside the fence and the people living outside of
it. Related to this were debates regarding the mission station,
Ukarumpa and how SIL members should ‘communicate the gospel’.
SIL’s main goal is Bible translation and the thesis explores the
challenges and problems of translation, both the practical aspects of
Bible translation and translating between cultures. Literacy work is
also an important part of SIL’s goal and is shown to be especially
significant in maintaining a good relationship with the PNG
government. Finally, notions of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’, particularly
in relation to the children of missionaries, and the notion of ‘citizens
of heaven’ is shown to help shape SIL members’ identities as
‘missionaries’.Negotiating small differences : conservation organisations and farming in IslayWhitehouse, Andrew J.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/218782021-11-17T09:34:55Z2005-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis concerns the relationship between two conservation organisations (Scottish Natural Heritage and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and farming people in Islay, Scotland. The historical discourse of this entangled relationship is constructed from interviews, archival research, meetings and events recorded during sixteen months of fieldwork. The principal contestations concerned designated areas for conservation and crop damage caused by protected geese. This historical discourse developed alongside fluctuations in Islay's agricultural economy and concerns over the future of farming. Five sketches introduce the discourse but the analysis is then developed around three symbols that represented conservation and farming - an RSPB nature reserve, designated areas and the goose problem. Farmers' relations with land, government and other farmers are also described in order to reveal their understandings of change and the outside world -both of which conservation organisations came to represent.
The thesis emphasises a perceptual, fluid and diachronic approach to the negotiation of difference and relations of power rather than notions of belonging and marginalisation. It describes how individuals and organisations explained and negotiated difference and how they utilised symbols both to situate themselves and to develop future strategies. Bateson's concepts of tautology and abduction are then used to tease out the underlying assumptions that underpin these practices. This analysis reveals models of connection between the local/ outside world and continuity/ change and the ways in which these were played off against one another in discourse. Although conservationists were often identified with change and the outside world, this identification was gradually reduced because farmers needed to renegotiate their livelihoods in the light of deteriorating economic conditions and also because conservation came to be more associated with the local and with continuity. Because their power could then seem either more negotiable or more inevitable, the influence of conservationists grew.
2005-01-01T00:00:00ZWhitehouse, Andrew J.This thesis concerns the relationship between two conservation organisations (Scottish Natural Heritage and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and farming people in Islay, Scotland. The historical discourse of this entangled relationship is constructed from interviews, archival research, meetings and events recorded during sixteen months of fieldwork. The principal contestations concerned designated areas for conservation and crop damage caused by protected geese. This historical discourse developed alongside fluctuations in Islay's agricultural economy and concerns over the future of farming. Five sketches introduce the discourse but the analysis is then developed around three symbols that represented conservation and farming - an RSPB nature reserve, designated areas and the goose problem. Farmers' relations with land, government and other farmers are also described in order to reveal their understandings of change and the outside world -both of which conservation organisations came to represent.
The thesis emphasises a perceptual, fluid and diachronic approach to the negotiation of difference and relations of power rather than notions of belonging and marginalisation. It describes how individuals and organisations explained and negotiated difference and how they utilised symbols both to situate themselves and to develop future strategies. Bateson's concepts of tautology and abduction are then used to tease out the underlying assumptions that underpin these practices. This analysis reveals models of connection between the local/ outside world and continuity/ change and the ways in which these were played off against one another in discourse. Although conservationists were often identified with change and the outside world, this identification was gradually reduced because farmers needed to renegotiate their livelihoods in the light of deteriorating economic conditions and also because conservation came to be more associated with the local and with continuity. Because their power could then seem either more negotiable or more inevitable, the influence of conservationists grew.The owners : creative processes and personhood in the peasant community of San Pablo de Inkawasi (Lambayeque, Peru)Martinez Santamaria, Luzhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/216662021-08-14T14:26:55Z2021-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an exploration of how the Quechua-speaking peasants of the community of
San Pablo de Inkawasi, in the Andes of northern Peru, make, grow or own things, domestic
plants and animals and their own children; and which shows how these creative processes—
and the bond of ownership that emerges from them—are central for articulating local
notions of sociality and personhood. The relation of ownership is also central for giving
meaning to their relations with the generative powers of the landscape and with the colonial
and postcolonial State. The focus of this thesis is on the bond of mastery or ownership,
responding to the necessity of underlining that all creative processes are thought of by the
Inkawasinos as a continuous relationship that long precedes and follows the actual
transformation (for example, the transformation of sheep wool into a poncho). Creative
processes are understood as appropriations—transforming something or someone into one’s
own—that create a permanent bond between creators and their creatures thought of in the
language of kin. The relations created between creators and their creatures, assimilated to
that between parents and children, are used to imagine a plural and unbounded person
composed of relations with humans and other-than-humans. Relations of mastery or
ownership are established not just between people and their belongings, but also between
people and other owners—human or not—including those to which the Inkawasinos belong
themselves: such as the mountains (Sirkakuna) or the Christian deities (Amitunchik). Mastery
has been historically at the centre of the relations with the colonial and post-colonial States,
which allows me to articulate personhood with the particular history of this Andean
community, and with the challenges its members face in a world of increasingly contested
ownership.
2021-01-01T00:00:00ZMartinez Santamaria, LuzThis thesis is an exploration of how the Quechua-speaking peasants of the community of
San Pablo de Inkawasi, in the Andes of northern Peru, make, grow or own things, domestic
plants and animals and their own children; and which shows how these creative processes—
and the bond of ownership that emerges from them—are central for articulating local
notions of sociality and personhood. The relation of ownership is also central for giving
meaning to their relations with the generative powers of the landscape and with the colonial
and postcolonial State. The focus of this thesis is on the bond of mastery or ownership,
responding to the necessity of underlining that all creative processes are thought of by the
Inkawasinos as a continuous relationship that long precedes and follows the actual
transformation (for example, the transformation of sheep wool into a poncho). Creative
processes are understood as appropriations—transforming something or someone into one’s
own—that create a permanent bond between creators and their creatures thought of in the
language of kin. The relations created between creators and their creatures, assimilated to
that between parents and children, are used to imagine a plural and unbounded person
composed of relations with humans and other-than-humans. Relations of mastery or
ownership are established not just between people and their belongings, but also between
people and other owners—human or not—including those to which the Inkawasinos belong
themselves: such as the mountains (Sirkakuna) or the Christian deities (Amitunchik). Mastery
has been historically at the centre of the relations with the colonial and post-colonial States,
which allows me to articulate personhood with the particular history of this Andean
community, and with the challenges its members face in a world of increasingly contested
ownership.Echoes of endlessness : time, memory, and experience for heroin users in ScotlandRoe, Laurahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/203842023-11-20T11:31:02Z2020-07-27T00:00:00ZDrawing on ethnographic research conducted from September 2016 to September 2017 in a county on the east coast of Scotland, this thesis explores heroin and poly-substance use in relation to time, temporality, and memory. The research took place within an array of recovery services and with individual heroin users, largely employing participant observation and interview methodologies. The first seven months of the research were primarily based in services, for the most part consisting of a third sector needle exchange, a community recovery group, and an under 25s drop-in centre. The latter five months were spent accompanying one scattered group of heroin users in their day to day lives.
In the context of substance use patterns specific to post-industrial Scotland, and among the highest drug-death rates in Europe, the thesis traces time as it becomes entangled with addiction and recovery across intimate, social, and institutional domains. It seeks to excavate related experiences of grief, loss, and trauma, as well as affect, intimacy, and pleasure. The thesis explores perceptions and experiences of unending repetition, which were tied to prevailing medical models of addiction and contradictions inherent in predominant constructions of recovery. In spite of their repetitiveness, however, time and broader life trajectories come to be so incoherent and complex that they are immensely difficult to trace, interpret, and express: for both heroin users and for the myriad medical, judicial, and recovery-oriented institutions they interacted with daily. The work overall attempts to give an ethnographic portrait of how heroin addiction and poly-substance use are composed in time, memory, history, and landscape, while examining contemporary approaches to addiction and recovery in Scotland.
2020-07-27T00:00:00ZRoe, LauraDrawing on ethnographic research conducted from September 2016 to September 2017 in a county on the east coast of Scotland, this thesis explores heroin and poly-substance use in relation to time, temporality, and memory. The research took place within an array of recovery services and with individual heroin users, largely employing participant observation and interview methodologies. The first seven months of the research were primarily based in services, for the most part consisting of a third sector needle exchange, a community recovery group, and an under 25s drop-in centre. The latter five months were spent accompanying one scattered group of heroin users in their day to day lives.
In the context of substance use patterns specific to post-industrial Scotland, and among the highest drug-death rates in Europe, the thesis traces time as it becomes entangled with addiction and recovery across intimate, social, and institutional domains. It seeks to excavate related experiences of grief, loss, and trauma, as well as affect, intimacy, and pleasure. The thesis explores perceptions and experiences of unending repetition, which were tied to prevailing medical models of addiction and contradictions inherent in predominant constructions of recovery. In spite of their repetitiveness, however, time and broader life trajectories come to be so incoherent and complex that they are immensely difficult to trace, interpret, and express: for both heroin users and for the myriad medical, judicial, and recovery-oriented institutions they interacted with daily. The work overall attempts to give an ethnographic portrait of how heroin addiction and poly-substance use are composed in time, memory, history, and landscape, while examining contemporary approaches to addiction and recovery in Scotland.Wandering becomings : free movement, farm labouring and desires of becoming amongst Romanian migrants in the Danish countrysideLovelady, Astrid Stampehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/202492021-07-27T09:22:01Z2020-07-27T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the everyday implications of labour migration within the European Union. Every year many people from Romania travel to work in Danish agriculture to gain a better livelihood. Due to issues of corruption and the risk of poverty, it has become increasingly difficult to make a living in Romania. In Danish agriculture, Romanians now constitute the largest group of migrant farm labourers. This thesis therefore takes up contemporary debates on European transformations and the implications of persisting socio-economic inequalities between EU countries.
To understand the social and individual implications of this migration, this thesis explores how Romanian farm labourers, along with their friends and families, experience and make sense of their lives and work in the Danish countryside. The analyses are based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork, which took place across a range of contexts that the farm labourers were part of in Denmark.
By analysing processes of becoming, the thesis analyses the different identities that the farm labourers construct for themselves across these contexts to make sense of their migratory movements. Through these different identities, the thesis argues, the farm labourers were continuously reassessing their social and individual lives within the European political economy and alongside their migratory experiences in the Danish countryside. As such, the thesis shows how the farm labourers’ situational becomings shape their experiences of working and living in Denmark, and how the farm labourers act according to their shifting interpretations of their past, present and future lives.
On the basis of these analyses, this thesis questions whether and in what ways the Romanian farm labourers' becomings are distinct as a result of their migratory experiences. The thesis argues that migrants’ ways of perceiving their becomings as part of their life transitions are influenced by the restraints and opportunities they encounter as migrants. In such a way, analysing migrants’ becomings allows for an exploration of the intersection between their particular ways of becoming and universal ways of becoming as human beings amidst contemporary European transformations.
2020-07-27T00:00:00ZLovelady, Astrid StampeThis thesis explores the everyday implications of labour migration within the European Union. Every year many people from Romania travel to work in Danish agriculture to gain a better livelihood. Due to issues of corruption and the risk of poverty, it has become increasingly difficult to make a living in Romania. In Danish agriculture, Romanians now constitute the largest group of migrant farm labourers. This thesis therefore takes up contemporary debates on European transformations and the implications of persisting socio-economic inequalities between EU countries.
To understand the social and individual implications of this migration, this thesis explores how Romanian farm labourers, along with their friends and families, experience and make sense of their lives and work in the Danish countryside. The analyses are based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork, which took place across a range of contexts that the farm labourers were part of in Denmark.
By analysing processes of becoming, the thesis analyses the different identities that the farm labourers construct for themselves across these contexts to make sense of their migratory movements. Through these different identities, the thesis argues, the farm labourers were continuously reassessing their social and individual lives within the European political economy and alongside their migratory experiences in the Danish countryside. As such, the thesis shows how the farm labourers’ situational becomings shape their experiences of working and living in Denmark, and how the farm labourers act according to their shifting interpretations of their past, present and future lives.
On the basis of these analyses, this thesis questions whether and in what ways the Romanian farm labourers' becomings are distinct as a result of their migratory experiences. The thesis argues that migrants’ ways of perceiving their becomings as part of their life transitions are influenced by the restraints and opportunities they encounter as migrants. In such a way, analysing migrants’ becomings allows for an exploration of the intersection between their particular ways of becoming and universal ways of becoming as human beings amidst contemporary European transformations.Partnerships and understanding between Kazakh pastoralists and golden eagles of the Altai mountains : a multi-species ethnographyMcGough, Lauren Muellerhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/189552021-04-16T08:29:10Z2019-12-04T00:00:00ZThis thesis is a study of the Kazakh tradition of hunting in partnership with golden
eagles in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia. It represents a unique relationship
among the spectrum of human-animal interactions – here eagles live both fully
independent lives in the ‘wild’ and yet, for a time, are brought into the domestic
sphere by Kazakhs and behave, in many ways, as a domesticated animal would.
Kazakhs are able to accomplish this through the deep ethno-ornithological
knowledge of the lives of eagles and a willingness to see eagles as beings with
agency and engage in an intersubjective relationship with them.
Kazakh pastoralists rely entirely on animals for their livelihood, and therefore
communicate with goats, sheep, horses, camels, yaks and eagles on a daily basis.
None of these relationships are of dominance, but rather co-domesticity. The aim
of this thesis is to use the lens of cultivating a relationship with an eagle to better
examine how human-animal interactions make us who we are, and help us
understand the world around us. There are strong parallels in the lives of the
eagles and Kazakhs of the Altai Mountains – both migrate with the seasons and
utilize landscapes in similar ways. Along with notions of ‘domestic’ and ‘wild’,
apprenticeship is a strong theme in this thesis. A Kazakh hunter must apprentice
himself to both his eagle and his human mentor. In turn, the eagle becomes an
apprentice of sorts as it learns to communicate with humans. Layers of
interspecies communication saturate the landscape and challenge the notion of
human exceptionalism. When we think about animals this way, like the Kazakhs do,
truly special human-animal partnerships can occur.
2019-12-04T00:00:00ZMcGough, Lauren MuellerThis thesis is a study of the Kazakh tradition of hunting in partnership with golden
eagles in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia. It represents a unique relationship
among the spectrum of human-animal interactions – here eagles live both fully
independent lives in the ‘wild’ and yet, for a time, are brought into the domestic
sphere by Kazakhs and behave, in many ways, as a domesticated animal would.
Kazakhs are able to accomplish this through the deep ethno-ornithological
knowledge of the lives of eagles and a willingness to see eagles as beings with
agency and engage in an intersubjective relationship with them.
Kazakh pastoralists rely entirely on animals for their livelihood, and therefore
communicate with goats, sheep, horses, camels, yaks and eagles on a daily basis.
None of these relationships are of dominance, but rather co-domesticity. The aim
of this thesis is to use the lens of cultivating a relationship with an eagle to better
examine how human-animal interactions make us who we are, and help us
understand the world around us. There are strong parallels in the lives of the
eagles and Kazakhs of the Altai Mountains – both migrate with the seasons and
utilize landscapes in similar ways. Along with notions of ‘domestic’ and ‘wild’,
apprenticeship is a strong theme in this thesis. A Kazakh hunter must apprentice
himself to both his eagle and his human mentor. In turn, the eagle becomes an
apprentice of sorts as it learns to communicate with humans. Layers of
interspecies communication saturate the landscape and challenge the notion of
human exceptionalism. When we think about animals this way, like the Kazakhs do,
truly special human-animal partnerships can occur.Weaving through life : an ethnographic study of the significance of pandanus work to the people of Futuna Island, VanuatuHazelgrove Planel, Luciehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/186952021-04-09T14:25:13Z2019-12-04T00:00:00ZThis thesis investigates how workers of pandanus on Futuna Island engage with and navigate the world around them through their work. Pandanus work is integral to social life: it nurtures, sustains, creates meaning and relations. Through focusing on the handicraft and considering pandanus work as a process: from the upkeep of the plants and the treatment of the leaf materials, the creation of structured artefacts and decorative plaited patterns, to the exchange and sale of baskets and mats and the final discarding of the artefacts, the research explores the complex set of meanings, sensibilities and challenges inherent in this multi-faceted and productive activity.
The ethnographic study fills an important gap in current research by exploring the pandanus baskets and mats used in the everyday rather than the artefacts of ceremonial importance. The quotidian interests and concerns of people in Vanuatu and how these are expressed through activities and material forms creates the very fabric of the thesis and reveals what is important in life on Futuna.
The study is set in a context where local knowledge and ways of doing things are actively reflected on and discussed as people navigate conflicting ideologies and ways of being. I argue that pandanus work is fundamentally a process of production where not only artefacts, but knowledge, subjects and relationships are created, nurtured and developed. Fundamental ideas about life are questioned in processes of pandanus work.
Thus through considering the social, religious, and environmental aspects of pandanus work, the research furthers anthropological understandings of how ideas, beliefs and challenges are explored and explained in the quotidian production and use of plaited mats and baskets in Vanuatu. This project explores how women on Futuna figuratively weave the story of their lives.
2019-12-04T00:00:00ZHazelgrove Planel, LucieThis thesis investigates how workers of pandanus on Futuna Island engage with and navigate the world around them through their work. Pandanus work is integral to social life: it nurtures, sustains, creates meaning and relations. Through focusing on the handicraft and considering pandanus work as a process: from the upkeep of the plants and the treatment of the leaf materials, the creation of structured artefacts and decorative plaited patterns, to the exchange and sale of baskets and mats and the final discarding of the artefacts, the research explores the complex set of meanings, sensibilities and challenges inherent in this multi-faceted and productive activity.
The ethnographic study fills an important gap in current research by exploring the pandanus baskets and mats used in the everyday rather than the artefacts of ceremonial importance. The quotidian interests and concerns of people in Vanuatu and how these are expressed through activities and material forms creates the very fabric of the thesis and reveals what is important in life on Futuna.
The study is set in a context where local knowledge and ways of doing things are actively reflected on and discussed as people navigate conflicting ideologies and ways of being. I argue that pandanus work is fundamentally a process of production where not only artefacts, but knowledge, subjects and relationships are created, nurtured and developed. Fundamental ideas about life are questioned in processes of pandanus work.
Thus through considering the social, religious, and environmental aspects of pandanus work, the research furthers anthropological understandings of how ideas, beliefs and challenges are explored and explained in the quotidian production and use of plaited mats and baskets in Vanuatu. This project explores how women on Futuna figuratively weave the story of their lives.‘The work of the heart’ : self-transformation amongst the people of Awim, Papua New GuineaBartole, Tomihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/180112023-06-08T08:40:20Z2017-06-20T00:00:00ZThis thesis analyses a significant shift in how Awim people in the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, conceive of, experience and talk about themselves, their relations with one another, and their world. My ethnographic analysis uses Awim categories to reveal processes of transformation and continuity, in particular the transformation of a ritual form and its eventual abolition.
In the Awim world every living being has a 'heart' (manga) – life itself – that metamorphoses from fruit to seed and from seed to fruit, engendering a container. When 'heart' (manga) is made verb (mangananm), the 'work of the heart' is evinced as the continuing constitution anew of a spiral-form. The ‘work of the heart’ is materially effective thoughts that may be found on the spiral boundaries that traverse the body's flesh, coincide with the finger tips, the words of my mother's brother or dwell between two moving hands in a problem-solving ritual called 'the handshake'.
My analysis begins with people's concerns about the precariousness of the world and problematic relations, which were especially dangerous. Attempts to ‘straighten’ relations were made through ‘the handshake’ ritual, in which two persons stand facing each other shaking hands and expressing their regrets. In presenting three case-studies I describe how ‘the handshake rituals’ were rendered efficacious, and also their limits, which materialized once the problems in the village were deemed to be grounded first in witchcraft and later in sorcery. Conscious of the limits of ‘the handshake’ ritual, people resorted to the revival of a local religious movement called The Michael Angel Ministry. After the Ministry solved the village's problems the people were most interested in preserving Michael's otherwise intermittent power through the restructuring of the Ministry. One of the provisions included the abolition of ‘the handshake’ ritual inside the Ministry and with it a significant shift occurred.
2017-06-20T00:00:00ZBartole, TomiThis thesis analyses a significant shift in how Awim people in the East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, conceive of, experience and talk about themselves, their relations with one another, and their world. My ethnographic analysis uses Awim categories to reveal processes of transformation and continuity, in particular the transformation of a ritual form and its eventual abolition.
In the Awim world every living being has a 'heart' (manga) – life itself – that metamorphoses from fruit to seed and from seed to fruit, engendering a container. When 'heart' (manga) is made verb (mangananm), the 'work of the heart' is evinced as the continuing constitution anew of a spiral-form. The ‘work of the heart’ is materially effective thoughts that may be found on the spiral boundaries that traverse the body's flesh, coincide with the finger tips, the words of my mother's brother or dwell between two moving hands in a problem-solving ritual called 'the handshake'.
My analysis begins with people's concerns about the precariousness of the world and problematic relations, which were especially dangerous. Attempts to ‘straighten’ relations were made through ‘the handshake’ ritual, in which two persons stand facing each other shaking hands and expressing their regrets. In presenting three case-studies I describe how ‘the handshake rituals’ were rendered efficacious, and also their limits, which materialized once the problems in the village were deemed to be grounded first in witchcraft and later in sorcery. Conscious of the limits of ‘the handshake’ ritual, people resorted to the revival of a local religious movement called The Michael Angel Ministry. After the Ministry solved the village's problems the people were most interested in preserving Michael's otherwise intermittent power through the restructuring of the Ministry. One of the provisions included the abolition of ‘the handshake’ ritual inside the Ministry and with it a significant shift occurred.'Literary spaces without readers' : the paradoxes of being a 'writer' in Havana, CubaRosenbaum, Mollyhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/179272021-03-12T15:52:57Z2019-06-24T00:00:00ZCuban writers have long struggled for publishing space. Historically that had been because of
repressive control of publishing mechanisms during the colonial period and the time of the Republic,
which, when access was granted, required expensive systems of patronage in order for writers to see
their work in print. While the Revolution advanced literacy rates and took ownership of the
publishing houses, printers, distributors and booksellers, creating cheap books for the pueblo cubano,
trade sanctions and the fall of the U.S.S.R. in 1991 resulted in limited resources for what had been a
well-subsidised publishing system.
The writers I worked with in Havana, though, are a generation newly connected to a global
literary network through internet access, introducing them to market trends and concepts of mass
readership. While they regularly partook in the praxis of writing, through weekly talleres
[workshops], monthly peñas literarias [literary salons] and by publishing digital literary magazines,
their idea of being a writer was being redefined by awareness of publishing systems internationally
and new concepts of economic and cultural value, problematising their self-conception as ‘writer’.
This thesis explores the context of being a writer in Cuba through my interlocutors’
conceptions of economic change, of future, of past, of literary history and of the city of Havana as a
space of creation. In studying how my interlocutors interact with their texts, I question notions of
literary invention and world-making and a sense of relatedness to characters. The writers I worked
with were concerned with reception, with conceptions of audience, cultural value and literary tastes.
This thesis attempts to show what it means to be ‘a writer’ for a group of people who see being a writer
as something they simultaneously are and can never be in Cuba.
2019-06-24T00:00:00ZRosenbaum, MollyCuban writers have long struggled for publishing space. Historically that had been because of
repressive control of publishing mechanisms during the colonial period and the time of the Republic,
which, when access was granted, required expensive systems of patronage in order for writers to see
their work in print. While the Revolution advanced literacy rates and took ownership of the
publishing houses, printers, distributors and booksellers, creating cheap books for the pueblo cubano,
trade sanctions and the fall of the U.S.S.R. in 1991 resulted in limited resources for what had been a
well-subsidised publishing system.
The writers I worked with in Havana, though, are a generation newly connected to a global
literary network through internet access, introducing them to market trends and concepts of mass
readership. While they regularly partook in the praxis of writing, through weekly talleres
[workshops], monthly peñas literarias [literary salons] and by publishing digital literary magazines,
their idea of being a writer was being redefined by awareness of publishing systems internationally
and new concepts of economic and cultural value, problematising their self-conception as ‘writer’.
This thesis explores the context of being a writer in Cuba through my interlocutors’
conceptions of economic change, of future, of past, of literary history and of the city of Havana as a
space of creation. In studying how my interlocutors interact with their texts, I question notions of
literary invention and world-making and a sense of relatedness to characters. The writers I worked
with were concerned with reception, with conceptions of audience, cultural value and literary tastes.
This thesis attempts to show what it means to be ‘a writer’ for a group of people who see being a writer
as something they simultaneously are and can never be in Cuba.Building Belize City : autonomy, skill and mobility amongst Belizean and Central American construction workersTroccoli, Giuseppehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/174412021-03-02T15:26:48Z2018-12-07T00:00:00ZThis thesis ethnographically explores the connections between labour and social life among workers informally employed in the small-scale construction industry of Belize City, the major urban centre of Belize on the Caribbean coast of Central America. It is grounded in participant observation among workers native to Belize as well as those born in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala who moved to Belize City because of civil wars starting in the 1970s, economic crises and a recent rise in gang-related crime.
The thesis first addresses how work is organized according to builders’ skills, and how skill acquisition is tied to the forms of sociality afforded by workers’ relationship to waged work. Labourers who need to generate income by moving around the city and hustling are excluded from forms of sociality which permit skilled workers to stabilize their employment. Moreover, labour is implicated in personal and social worth, as becomes clear through an examination of male workers’ status, reputations and multiple positionalities as kin.
Through ethnography both on and off the worksite, the research shows the entanglement of work, friendship and kinship ties, providing an analysis of the social, personal and economic differences these entail. The study foregrounds relationships in the lives of those born in the city as well as recently arrived migrants, while privileging subjective accounts which reveal multiple ways of experiencing the urban environment. This experience of working and living in Belize City is revealed through the future aspirations and ambitions that are conveyed through personal narratives. The thesis captures this plurality of perspectives through the idea of autonomy, a condition valued by workers which serves as a tool for understanding their circumstances at large and the relations between their work and daily life.
2018-12-07T00:00:00ZTroccoli, GiuseppeThis thesis ethnographically explores the connections between labour and social life among workers informally employed in the small-scale construction industry of Belize City, the major urban centre of Belize on the Caribbean coast of Central America. It is grounded in participant observation among workers native to Belize as well as those born in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala who moved to Belize City because of civil wars starting in the 1970s, economic crises and a recent rise in gang-related crime.
The thesis first addresses how work is organized according to builders’ skills, and how skill acquisition is tied to the forms of sociality afforded by workers’ relationship to waged work. Labourers who need to generate income by moving around the city and hustling are excluded from forms of sociality which permit skilled workers to stabilize their employment. Moreover, labour is implicated in personal and social worth, as becomes clear through an examination of male workers’ status, reputations and multiple positionalities as kin.
Through ethnography both on and off the worksite, the research shows the entanglement of work, friendship and kinship ties, providing an analysis of the social, personal and economic differences these entail. The study foregrounds relationships in the lives of those born in the city as well as recently arrived migrants, while privileging subjective accounts which reveal multiple ways of experiencing the urban environment. This experience of working and living in Belize City is revealed through the future aspirations and ambitions that are conveyed through personal narratives. The thesis captures this plurality of perspectives through the idea of autonomy, a condition valued by workers which serves as a tool for understanding their circumstances at large and the relations between their work and daily life.Exclusion and reappropriation: experiences of contemporary enclosure among children in three East Anglian schoolsIrvine, Richard D. G.Lee, ElsaStrubel, MirandaBodenhorn, Barbarahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/171572022-04-11T14:32:55Z2016-10-01T00:00:00ZTransformations of the landscapes which children inhabit have significant impacts on their lives; yet, due to the limited economic visibility of children’s relationships with place, they have little stake in those transformations. Their experience, therefore, illustrates in an acute way the experience of contemporary enclosure as a mode of subordination. Following fieldwork in three primary schools in South Cambridgeshire, UK, we offer an ethnographic account of children’s experiences of socio-spatial exclusion. Yet, we suggest that such exclusion is by no means an end-point in children’s relationships with place. Challenging assumptions that children are disconnected from nature, we argue that through play and imaginative exploration of their environments, children find ways to rebuild relationships with places from which they find themselves excluded.
2016-10-01T00:00:00ZIrvine, Richard D. G.Lee, ElsaStrubel, MirandaBodenhorn, BarbaraTransformations of the landscapes which children inhabit have significant impacts on their lives; yet, due to the limited economic visibility of children’s relationships with place, they have little stake in those transformations. Their experience, therefore, illustrates in an acute way the experience of contemporary enclosure as a mode of subordination. Following fieldwork in three primary schools in South Cambridgeshire, UK, we offer an ethnographic account of children’s experiences of socio-spatial exclusion. Yet, we suggest that such exclusion is by no means an end-point in children’s relationships with place. Challenging assumptions that children are disconnected from nature, we argue that through play and imaginative exploration of their environments, children find ways to rebuild relationships with places from which they find themselves excluded.Anthropocene East AngliaIrvine, Richard D.G.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/169192024-02-15T00:48:45Z2017-03-01T00:00:00ZAs we find ourselves in a geological epoch of our own making, it becomes necessary to reconsider the temporal scale of ethnographic enquiry; the effect of human behaviour is shown as a mark in deep time. Focusing on the East Anglian fenland, UK, this article considers the importance of thinking about long-term environmental change for the understanding of human life. First, the article explores the way in which human geological agency has transformed the landscape. It then goes on to argue that while the scale of such changes can only be understood against the backdrop of geological time, social life in the region nevertheless demonstrates ‘temporal lockin’, which is defined in the article as an increasing fixation with the landscape of a single point in history. The consequence of such temporal lock-in is that long-term environmental variability becomes, literally, unthinkable; yet surface-level certainties of the present are called into question when the timescale of deep history is brought into view.
2017-03-01T00:00:00ZIrvine, Richard D.G.As we find ourselves in a geological epoch of our own making, it becomes necessary to reconsider the temporal scale of ethnographic enquiry; the effect of human behaviour is shown as a mark in deep time. Focusing on the East Anglian fenland, UK, this article considers the importance of thinking about long-term environmental change for the understanding of human life. First, the article explores the way in which human geological agency has transformed the landscape. It then goes on to argue that while the scale of such changes can only be understood against the backdrop of geological time, social life in the region nevertheless demonstrates ‘temporal lockin’, which is defined in the article as an increasing fixation with the landscape of a single point in history. The consequence of such temporal lock-in is that long-term environmental variability becomes, literally, unthinkable; yet surface-level certainties of the present are called into question when the timescale of deep history is brought into view.Authenticity, performance and the construction of self : a journey through the terrestrial and digital landscapes of men's tailored dressBluteau, Joshua Maxhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/165762023-12-20T03:02:33Z2018-12-07T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores high-end and bespoke menswear, tailoring and fashion, asking the question - why do some men choose to spend large sums of money to have clothes made for them? Using tailors and high-end menswear as a lens, this thesis unpacks how men construct their notion of self in the digital and terrestrial worlds through the clothes that they wear and the identities they perform. Based on twelve months’ terrestrial fieldwork in London and twenty-four months’ concurrent digital fieldwork with Instagram, this thesis examines notions of dress, performance and the individual across a multi-dimensional fieldsite set within a blended digital and terrestrial landscape. The fieldwork comprised visiting and interviewing tailors, and observing inside their workshops and at their fashion shows. In addition, the analyst-as-client built relationships with tailors, and constructed a digital self within Instagram through the publication of self-portraits and images of clothing.
This thesis is presented in four chapters, flanked by an Introduction and Conclusion. These chapters move from an exploration of terrestrial research in the first two, to an analysis of digital research in the latter two. Five major motifs emerge in this thesis: the importance of the anthropology of clothing and adornment within western society; the nature of the individual in a digitised world; the difficulty in conducting western-centric fieldwork without an element of digital analysis; a methodological restructuring of digital anthropology; and the idea that a digital self can acquire agency. This thesis employs a pioneering blended methodology which brings together the fields of digital anthropology, visual anthropology and material culture to question how selves are constructed in a rapidly changing and increasingly digitised modernity. In conclusion, the thesis argues that individuals construct multiple digital selves and a sense of identity (around the notion of ‘authentic individualism’) that is illusory.
2018-12-07T00:00:00ZBluteau, Joshua MaxThis thesis explores high-end and bespoke menswear, tailoring and fashion, asking the question - why do some men choose to spend large sums of money to have clothes made for them? Using tailors and high-end menswear as a lens, this thesis unpacks how men construct their notion of self in the digital and terrestrial worlds through the clothes that they wear and the identities they perform. Based on twelve months’ terrestrial fieldwork in London and twenty-four months’ concurrent digital fieldwork with Instagram, this thesis examines notions of dress, performance and the individual across a multi-dimensional fieldsite set within a blended digital and terrestrial landscape. The fieldwork comprised visiting and interviewing tailors, and observing inside their workshops and at their fashion shows. In addition, the analyst-as-client built relationships with tailors, and constructed a digital self within Instagram through the publication of self-portraits and images of clothing.
This thesis is presented in four chapters, flanked by an Introduction and Conclusion. These chapters move from an exploration of terrestrial research in the first two, to an analysis of digital research in the latter two. Five major motifs emerge in this thesis: the importance of the anthropology of clothing and adornment within western society; the nature of the individual in a digitised world; the difficulty in conducting western-centric fieldwork without an element of digital analysis; a methodological restructuring of digital anthropology; and the idea that a digital self can acquire agency. This thesis employs a pioneering blended methodology which brings together the fields of digital anthropology, visual anthropology and material culture to question how selves are constructed in a rapidly changing and increasingly digitised modernity. In conclusion, the thesis argues that individuals construct multiple digital selves and a sense of identity (around the notion of ‘authentic individualism’) that is illusory.The power and the glory : belief, sacramentality and native Andean Catholic priests in Talavera, PeruLee, Christine Shen-Chirnghttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/165492018-11-26T15:03:37Z2018-12-07T00:00:00ZIn Talavera, a small town in the rural south-central Peruvian Andes, Catholicism is deeply rooted in local institutions, society and history. I explore Talaveran Catholicism primarily through the eyes of the priests and the core parish community, and in doing so seek to contribute to the anthropology of Christianity, including the anthropology of Catholicism, and the anthropology of the Andes. Engaging with dominant models in the anthropology of Christianity of Christianity as a religion of conversion and radical discontinuity, I argue that in Talavera, such models no longer ring true for local Catholics: instead, Christian conversion is long forgotten and taken for granted, while Christianity is an important source of continuity with the past. This is related to the activities of the current generation of Catholic priests in Talavera, who are locally native and who by and large tend to be more sympathetic to local Andean Catholic traditions as a result—but without subscribing to dominant anthropological framings for pro-Andean sentiment. Instead, I draw on David Brown’s formulation of Christian tradition to argue for a new anthropological model views the ‘syncretic’ aspects of Andean Catholicism as simply part of Catholicism in general. Following the emphasis on incorporating theology, I subsequently argue that we need to take seriously Catholic notions of sacramentality as an ontological transformation—a theme throughout the majority of the thesis. I argue that sacramentality underlies how Catholic priests can be simultaneously divine and human through the sacrament of ordination; structures clerical-lay relations in Catholic parishes by creating the space for lay assistants to carry out the work of priests without becoming priests themselves; and causes membership of the Catholic Church, thereby leaving belief to carry out the work of improving, rather than effecting, one’s Catholic-ness.
2018-12-07T00:00:00ZLee, Christine Shen-ChirngIn Talavera, a small town in the rural south-central Peruvian Andes, Catholicism is deeply rooted in local institutions, society and history. I explore Talaveran Catholicism primarily through the eyes of the priests and the core parish community, and in doing so seek to contribute to the anthropology of Christianity, including the anthropology of Catholicism, and the anthropology of the Andes. Engaging with dominant models in the anthropology of Christianity of Christianity as a religion of conversion and radical discontinuity, I argue that in Talavera, such models no longer ring true for local Catholics: instead, Christian conversion is long forgotten and taken for granted, while Christianity is an important source of continuity with the past. This is related to the activities of the current generation of Catholic priests in Talavera, who are locally native and who by and large tend to be more sympathetic to local Andean Catholic traditions as a result—but without subscribing to dominant anthropological framings for pro-Andean sentiment. Instead, I draw on David Brown’s formulation of Christian tradition to argue for a new anthropological model views the ‘syncretic’ aspects of Andean Catholicism as simply part of Catholicism in general. Following the emphasis on incorporating theology, I subsequently argue that we need to take seriously Catholic notions of sacramentality as an ontological transformation—a theme throughout the majority of the thesis. I argue that sacramentality underlies how Catholic priests can be simultaneously divine and human through the sacrament of ordination; structures clerical-lay relations in Catholic parishes by creating the space for lay assistants to carry out the work of priests without becoming priests themselves; and causes membership of the Catholic Church, thereby leaving belief to carry out the work of improving, rather than effecting, one’s Catholic-ness.Human predation and animal sociality : the transformational agency of ‘wolf people’ in MongoliaHigh, Mette M.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/165202023-07-24T14:30:47Z2016-11-14T00:00:00ZThis chapter examines the recent proliferation of ‘wolf people’ following the advent of the Mongolian gold rush. By analysing ethnographic and historical material on the position of wolves in Mongolian cosmology, I demonstrate how these beings call into question the relationship between animality and humanity. Concealed in human bodies and destined to a solitary life of greed, ‘wolf people’ challenge the human potential for peaceful and productive living. Demonstrating the importance of moving away from a human-centred perspective on morality, I argue that relations between humans and animals reveal how personhood is a matter of persuasion.
2016-11-14T00:00:00ZHigh, Mette M.This chapter examines the recent proliferation of ‘wolf people’ following the advent of the Mongolian gold rush. By analysing ethnographic and historical material on the position of wolves in Mongolian cosmology, I demonstrate how these beings call into question the relationship between animality and humanity. Concealed in human bodies and destined to a solitary life of greed, ‘wolf people’ challenge the human potential for peaceful and productive living. Demonstrating the importance of moving away from a human-centred perspective on morality, I argue that relations between humans and animals reveal how personhood is a matter of persuasion.Making renting right : ethics of economy in the Edinburgh private rented sectorBridgman, Benjamin Johnhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/162942024-02-14T15:25:01Z2018-06-28T00:00:00ZRecent decades have seen a shift in Scotland in terms of the provision of housing and housing-related services from the public sector to the private sector. In statistical terms, the proportion of Scottish households in the private rented sector has doubled during the past ten years.
This thesis unpacks anthropologically the private rented sector as a locally-found concept in Edinburgh, largely through the medium of ‘property management’, another locally-found concept. Key questions concern how the private rented sector in Edinburgh is ‘managed’ at the vernacular level, how the ethics of property management take shape in Edinburgh in the context of this ongoing shift from the public to the private sectors, and how the property relations within the sector relate to existing debates in economic anthropology. The primary ethnographic material, based upon fieldwork in 2014 and 2015, is of an Edinburgh letting agency as archetypal property managers, though other material either was produced in conjunction with Shelter Scotland or stemmed from the tracing of further connections within the field. Engaging with the broader anthropology of ethics, a core conclusion is that processes of property management rest ultimately upon practices of ethics that take place at the ‘ordinary’ level.
A parallel aim is to consider how anthropologists might produce ethnography of an economic ‘sector’, such as the private rented sector. Borrowing from Actor-Network Theory, I propose occupying a range of different vantage points in a given economic sector within a socially defined locale, such as the city, by following the connections encountered in the field, and then by allowing actors to perform both the social and the economic by tracing their associations through the production of the ethnographic text.
2018-06-28T00:00:00ZBridgman, Benjamin JohnRecent decades have seen a shift in Scotland in terms of the provision of housing and housing-related services from the public sector to the private sector. In statistical terms, the proportion of Scottish households in the private rented sector has doubled during the past ten years.
This thesis unpacks anthropologically the private rented sector as a locally-found concept in Edinburgh, largely through the medium of ‘property management’, another locally-found concept. Key questions concern how the private rented sector in Edinburgh is ‘managed’ at the vernacular level, how the ethics of property management take shape in Edinburgh in the context of this ongoing shift from the public to the private sectors, and how the property relations within the sector relate to existing debates in economic anthropology. The primary ethnographic material, based upon fieldwork in 2014 and 2015, is of an Edinburgh letting agency as archetypal property managers, though other material either was produced in conjunction with Shelter Scotland or stemmed from the tracing of further connections within the field. Engaging with the broader anthropology of ethics, a core conclusion is that processes of property management rest ultimately upon practices of ethics that take place at the ‘ordinary’ level.
A parallel aim is to consider how anthropologists might produce ethnography of an economic ‘sector’, such as the private rented sector. Borrowing from Actor-Network Theory, I propose occupying a range of different vantage points in a given economic sector within a socially defined locale, such as the city, by following the connections encountered in the field, and then by allowing actors to perform both the social and the economic by tracing their associations through the production of the ethnographic text.Indigenous routes : interfluves and interpreters in the upper Tapajós river (c. 1750 to c. 1950)Belik, Danielhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/160992019-04-01T09:29:55Z2018-12-07T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an ethnographic account of the indigenous history and colonization of the upper Tapajós river in Brazil. Research was conducted using archival materials in which I searched for the different conceptualizations of river movements and routes, of either Indians or colonizers. During the period of penetration in the region called “Mundurucânica”, several native groups living in the savannah and at the riverbanks, started to be used as a labour-force, but above all, they worked as interpreters thereby enabling colonization on these Amazonian rivers around the Tapajós. If, on one hand, native groups were violated by colonization, on the other, they have shaped and influenced the penetration, demonstrating their active involvement in this
historical process. With the arrival of Franciscan priests and the ultimate establishment of the Cururu Mission, exchanges between indigenous people and colonizers became impregnated with mythical fragments. These relations of displacements and encounters between indigenous groups—that in turn influenced colonization efforts—with local cultural values and practices is still a relatively little explored topic in anthropology. This thesis synthesises the history of the colonization of a region of the Brazilian Amazonian rainforest from the point of view of its indigenous inhabitants. It considers the pacification of the Indians in the 18th and 19th
centuries, presenting ethnographic material of the indigenous groups that have moved into the Tapajós region and examines their social logic of interethnic contact. I analyze fragments of material culture, myths and naming such as they appear in the
literature so as to track down the spatial dynamics of indigenous Amazonia and its landscape transformations.
2018-12-07T00:00:00ZBelik, DanielThis thesis is an ethnographic account of the indigenous history and colonization of the upper Tapajós river in Brazil. Research was conducted using archival materials in which I searched for the different conceptualizations of river movements and routes, of either Indians or colonizers. During the period of penetration in the region called “Mundurucânica”, several native groups living in the savannah and at the riverbanks, started to be used as a labour-force, but above all, they worked as interpreters thereby enabling colonization on these Amazonian rivers around the Tapajós. If, on one hand, native groups were violated by colonization, on the other, they have shaped and influenced the penetration, demonstrating their active involvement in this
historical process. With the arrival of Franciscan priests and the ultimate establishment of the Cururu Mission, exchanges between indigenous people and colonizers became impregnated with mythical fragments. These relations of displacements and encounters between indigenous groups—that in turn influenced colonization efforts—with local cultural values and practices is still a relatively little explored topic in anthropology. This thesis synthesises the history of the colonization of a region of the Brazilian Amazonian rainforest from the point of view of its indigenous inhabitants. It considers the pacification of the Indians in the 18th and 19th
centuries, presenting ethnographic material of the indigenous groups that have moved into the Tapajós region and examines their social logic of interethnic contact. I analyze fragments of material culture, myths and naming such as they appear in the
literature so as to track down the spatial dynamics of indigenous Amazonia and its landscape transformations.Keep it tight : family, learning and social transformation in New Mexico, United StatesHurst, Elizabeth Maryhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/160082019-04-01T09:32:06Z2018-12-07T00:00:00ZThis dissertation examines learning as part of social transformation in a semi-rural town in New Mexico, United States. It incorporates a focus on young people through direct work with children and observations in school and argues that each person’s understanding is historically emergent from what sense they make of the events of their personal history as this unfolds over time in intersubjective relations with others. This has implications for the ways in which Hispano/a and Latino/a people living in “Bosque Verde” make sense of concepts like respect, hard work and obligation, as well as how they think about family and children’s wellbeing.
The ways in which people experience and understand getting older and their movements from child to adult/parent and from parent to grandparent/elder are central to this process of making sense. As people age, what they know to be true transforms, as does how they perceive the effects of social change. For people living in Bosque Verde, this includes both the experience of contemporary social and economic shifts in New Mexico and the United States, as well as how people there have made sense of social marginalisation over the past century and back into the more distant past.
Parents and elders manifest historical consciousness of these transformations in part through their concerns for children and their vulnerability in an insecure and unequal world. Children, however, constitute their own ideas about family, hard work, care and respect in ways that potentially transform their meaning, as well as the possibilities of their own futures. This thesis therefore describes ‘keeping it tight’ in Bosque Verde as a microhistorical process that shapes how people understand and experience social relationships over the lifetime. This process, in turn, influences how people living there make sense of the past and imagine the future for themselves and others.
2018-12-07T00:00:00ZHurst, Elizabeth MaryThis dissertation examines learning as part of social transformation in a semi-rural town in New Mexico, United States. It incorporates a focus on young people through direct work with children and observations in school and argues that each person’s understanding is historically emergent from what sense they make of the events of their personal history as this unfolds over time in intersubjective relations with others. This has implications for the ways in which Hispano/a and Latino/a people living in “Bosque Verde” make sense of concepts like respect, hard work and obligation, as well as how they think about family and children’s wellbeing.
The ways in which people experience and understand getting older and their movements from child to adult/parent and from parent to grandparent/elder are central to this process of making sense. As people age, what they know to be true transforms, as does how they perceive the effects of social change. For people living in Bosque Verde, this includes both the experience of contemporary social and economic shifts in New Mexico and the United States, as well as how people there have made sense of social marginalisation over the past century and back into the more distant past.
Parents and elders manifest historical consciousness of these transformations in part through their concerns for children and their vulnerability in an insecure and unequal world. Children, however, constitute their own ideas about family, hard work, care and respect in ways that potentially transform their meaning, as well as the possibilities of their own futures. This thesis therefore describes ‘keeping it tight’ in Bosque Verde as a microhistorical process that shapes how people understand and experience social relationships over the lifetime. This process, in turn, influences how people living there make sense of the past and imagine the future for themselves and others.'Homeawayness' : experiencing moments of home among Chinese labour migrantsChen, Shuhuahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/155942022-10-04T14:46:07Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZMigration is a major feature of contemporary human life, while making home is
ubiquitous. Being away from home creates a space for a migrant to rethink home and to
make a home beyond something fixed, spatial, and material. This thesis concerns home
and home making in the world of movement. It aims to investigate the ways in which
labour migrants make home on their journey away from home, a home through which
they express and fulfil themselves while making sense of the world.
Based on fieldwork in the Chaoshan region in South China, I approach individual
migrants from two practices of migration that have affected the region in the last 150
years: the historical international Nanyang (Southeast Asia) migration (1860s to 1970s)
and the contemporary internal rural-urban migration (1980s to present). Specifically, my
fieldwork includes participant observation through working in a toy factory with migrant
workers and living together with them for a year, as well as some months of archival
research of remittance family letters (qiaopi) in a local archive.
To study these two different strands of Chinese migration is not aimed primarily at
comparing or contrasting them; rather it is an attempt to explore the universal human
capacity to make home in a variety of ways beyond socio-cultural or historical constraint.
I argue that one experiences and makes sense of home in moments of being, while
making home, making self (and vice versa) is a continual process. One is constantly in a
process of self-negotiation, oscillating between identities that are being imposed and self-
recognised, between one’s reality and one’s imagination, between one’s past and one’s
future, and between one’s rootedness and one’s cosmopolitan openness.
I conclude the thesis by proposing five keywords for studying home-in-movement:
homeawayness, moments of being, interiority, cosmopolitan imagination, and walking
knowledge.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZChen, ShuhuaMigration is a major feature of contemporary human life, while making home is
ubiquitous. Being away from home creates a space for a migrant to rethink home and to
make a home beyond something fixed, spatial, and material. This thesis concerns home
and home making in the world of movement. It aims to investigate the ways in which
labour migrants make home on their journey away from home, a home through which
they express and fulfil themselves while making sense of the world.
Based on fieldwork in the Chaoshan region in South China, I approach individual
migrants from two practices of migration that have affected the region in the last 150
years: the historical international Nanyang (Southeast Asia) migration (1860s to 1970s)
and the contemporary internal rural-urban migration (1980s to present). Specifically, my
fieldwork includes participant observation through working in a toy factory with migrant
workers and living together with them for a year, as well as some months of archival
research of remittance family letters (qiaopi) in a local archive.
To study these two different strands of Chinese migration is not aimed primarily at
comparing or contrasting them; rather it is an attempt to explore the universal human
capacity to make home in a variety of ways beyond socio-cultural or historical constraint.
I argue that one experiences and makes sense of home in moments of being, while
making home, making self (and vice versa) is a continual process. One is constantly in a
process of self-negotiation, oscillating between identities that are being imposed and self-
recognised, between one’s reality and one’s imagination, between one’s past and one’s
future, and between one’s rootedness and one’s cosmopolitan openness.
I conclude the thesis by proposing five keywords for studying home-in-movement:
homeawayness, moments of being, interiority, cosmopolitan imagination, and walking
knowledge.Not-the-Troubles : an anthropological analysis of stories of quotidian life in BelfastLane, Karenhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/155912019-04-01T09:29:33Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZTo understand the complexity of life in a city one needs to consider a spectrum of
experience. Belfast has a history of conflict and division, particularly in relation to the
Troubles, reflected in comprehensive academic studies of how this has affected, and
continues to affect, the citizens. But this is a particular mode of representation, a
vision of life echoed in fictional literature. People’s quotidian lives can and do
transcend the grand narratives of the Troubles that have come to dominate these
discourses. Anthropology has traditionally accorded less epistemological weight to
fleeting and superficial encounters with strangers, but this mode of sociality is a
central feature of life in the city. The modern stranger navigates these relationships
with relative ease. Communicating with others through narrative – personal stories
about our lives – is fundamental to what it is to be human, putting storytelling at the
heart of anthropological study. Engagements with strangers may be brief encounters
or build into acquaintanceship, but these superficial relationships are not trivial. How
we interact with strangers – our public presentation of the self to others through the
personal stories we share – can give glimpses into the private lives of individuals.
Listening to stories of quotidian life in Belfast demonstrates a range of people’s
existential dilemmas and joys that challenges Troubled representations of life in the
city. The complexity, size and anonymity of the city means the anthropologist needs
different ways of reaching people; this thesis is as much about exploring certain
anthropological methodologies as it is about people and a place. Through methods
of walking, performance, human-animal interactions, my body as a research subject,
and using fictional literature as ethnographic data, I interrogate the close
relationship between method, data and analysis, and of knowledge-production and
knowledge-dissemination. I present quotidian narratives of Belfast’s citizens that are
Not-the-Troubles.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZLane, KarenTo understand the complexity of life in a city one needs to consider a spectrum of
experience. Belfast has a history of conflict and division, particularly in relation to the
Troubles, reflected in comprehensive academic studies of how this has affected, and
continues to affect, the citizens. But this is a particular mode of representation, a
vision of life echoed in fictional literature. People’s quotidian lives can and do
transcend the grand narratives of the Troubles that have come to dominate these
discourses. Anthropology has traditionally accorded less epistemological weight to
fleeting and superficial encounters with strangers, but this mode of sociality is a
central feature of life in the city. The modern stranger navigates these relationships
with relative ease. Communicating with others through narrative – personal stories
about our lives – is fundamental to what it is to be human, putting storytelling at the
heart of anthropological study. Engagements with strangers may be brief encounters
or build into acquaintanceship, but these superficial relationships are not trivial. How
we interact with strangers – our public presentation of the self to others through the
personal stories we share – can give glimpses into the private lives of individuals.
Listening to stories of quotidian life in Belfast demonstrates a range of people’s
existential dilemmas and joys that challenges Troubled representations of life in the
city. The complexity, size and anonymity of the city means the anthropologist needs
different ways of reaching people; this thesis is as much about exploring certain
anthropological methodologies as it is about people and a place. Through methods
of walking, performance, human-animal interactions, my body as a research subject,
and using fictional literature as ethnographic data, I interrogate the close
relationship between method, data and analysis, and of knowledge-production and
knowledge-dissemination. I present quotidian narratives of Belfast’s citizens that are
Not-the-Troubles.Bailando bajo la lluvia : dancing amongst Mexicanos and Mexican Americans in Northern CaliforniaLoney, Margarethttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/155872019-04-01T09:31:04Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is a study of dancing and dancing events amongst Mexicanos and Mexican Americans in northern California. The study posits that dancing can be approached as a broader form of activity which encompasses a variety of individual dance styles. In adopting this approach, the aim is to move the understanding of dancing away from a practice set apart from the everyday and used principally as a tool and site fo4r the construction and maintenance of identification, dancing instead emerges as an activity threaded through the everyday in a variety of forms, an activity in which practitioners engage for many varied and overlapping reasons throughout the course of their lives.
Three principal themes are explored in the work. The first addresses the practitioners’ understanding of dancing and highlights the place of movement, music, and ‘sentir la música/el ritmo’ in this. This understanding is revealed to be flexible, multiple, and shifting, the result of attunement and responsiveness as the practitioners interacted with one another and the world around then, the second themes addresses learning and points to the presence of two different by interconnected experiences of dance enskilment, ‘learning to dance’ and ‘just dancing’. These are principally differentiated through the intent of the practitioners but are further differentiated through the understanding and sensory experience of the learning, the subject of enskilment and the value this is given, and dynamics between the practitioners. The third theme looks at dancing and dancing events as a relational process and explores the variety of relations, both those experienced as ‘positive’ and those as ‘negative’, that practitioners foster and articulate within dancing and how the explore a range of concrete activity before, during, and after dancing events to do so. Together these themes p-provide and understanding of dancing as a broader activity and process that complements work which focuses on individual dance forms and specific issues related to these
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZLoney, MargaretThis thesis is a study of dancing and dancing events amongst Mexicanos and Mexican Americans in northern California. The study posits that dancing can be approached as a broader form of activity which encompasses a variety of individual dance styles. In adopting this approach, the aim is to move the understanding of dancing away from a practice set apart from the everyday and used principally as a tool and site fo4r the construction and maintenance of identification, dancing instead emerges as an activity threaded through the everyday in a variety of forms, an activity in which practitioners engage for many varied and overlapping reasons throughout the course of their lives.
Three principal themes are explored in the work. The first addresses the practitioners’ understanding of dancing and highlights the place of movement, music, and ‘sentir la música/el ritmo’ in this. This understanding is revealed to be flexible, multiple, and shifting, the result of attunement and responsiveness as the practitioners interacted with one another and the world around then, the second themes addresses learning and points to the presence of two different by interconnected experiences of dance enskilment, ‘learning to dance’ and ‘just dancing’. These are principally differentiated through the intent of the practitioners but are further differentiated through the understanding and sensory experience of the learning, the subject of enskilment and the value this is given, and dynamics between the practitioners. The third theme looks at dancing and dancing events as a relational process and explores the variety of relations, both those experienced as ‘positive’ and those as ‘negative’, that practitioners foster and articulate within dancing and how the explore a range of concrete activity before, during, and after dancing events to do so. Together these themes p-provide and understanding of dancing as a broader activity and process that complements work which focuses on individual dance forms and specific issues related to these"Los toros guapos" : "good-looking bulls", animal life, ethics and professional know-how on an Andalusian bull-breeding estateIrvine, Robinhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/155502019-04-01T09:28:55Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis take the form of an ethnographic exploration of a bull-breeding estate called
Partido de Resina (formerly Pablo Romero) in the countryside near Seville in Andalusia.
The estate, founded in 1885, produces fighting bulls for taurine events in Southern France,
Spain and Portugal. At the heart of the thesis is the life cycle of the fighting animals, every
chapter being anchored to a particular point in the bull-breeding calendar and the lives of
the stock. Each chapter draws out specific qualities of the world of the bulls from the
perspective of Partido de Resina, rooting the bulls and their people in a wider Spanish and
Andalusian landscape and history, with a focus on technical know-how and everyday
ethics after the 2008 financial crisis. The professionals who care for the Partido de Resina
bulls, cows, and calves are the human protagonists of this project; their working routines,
hopes, concerns, and stories described through their interactions with the animals which
they look after.
The core anthropological argument in the thesis is to show how different ethnographically
salient forms of life emerge on and around the estate, sometimes weighted towards
individual animals, sometimes towards bits of taurine bodies, or breeds, types, lineages,
cohorts, and other groupings of stock. The varied, dynamic presence of animal life is
contextualised in the literature of the 'animal turn' in anthropology, which has drawn non-
human life into the ethnographic foreground. A case is made for a nuanced and contextual
ethnographic attention to animal life and interiority as it emerges in the field, without an a
priori emphasis on animal personhood or subjectivity. In foregrounding the qualities and
concerns encountered and worked through during both routine livestock maintenance and
extraordinary, definitive events like bullfights, the emergent, multiple character of taurine
forms of existence become apparent.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZIrvine, RobinThis thesis take the form of an ethnographic exploration of a bull-breeding estate called
Partido de Resina (formerly Pablo Romero) in the countryside near Seville in Andalusia.
The estate, founded in 1885, produces fighting bulls for taurine events in Southern France,
Spain and Portugal. At the heart of the thesis is the life cycle of the fighting animals, every
chapter being anchored to a particular point in the bull-breeding calendar and the lives of
the stock. Each chapter draws out specific qualities of the world of the bulls from the
perspective of Partido de Resina, rooting the bulls and their people in a wider Spanish and
Andalusian landscape and history, with a focus on technical know-how and everyday
ethics after the 2008 financial crisis. The professionals who care for the Partido de Resina
bulls, cows, and calves are the human protagonists of this project; their working routines,
hopes, concerns, and stories described through their interactions with the animals which
they look after.
The core anthropological argument in the thesis is to show how different ethnographically
salient forms of life emerge on and around the estate, sometimes weighted towards
individual animals, sometimes towards bits of taurine bodies, or breeds, types, lineages,
cohorts, and other groupings of stock. The varied, dynamic presence of animal life is
contextualised in the literature of the 'animal turn' in anthropology, which has drawn non-
human life into the ethnographic foreground. A case is made for a nuanced and contextual
ethnographic attention to animal life and interiority as it emerges in the field, without an a
priori emphasis on animal personhood or subjectivity. In foregrounding the qualities and
concerns encountered and worked through during both routine livestock maintenance and
extraordinary, definitive events like bullfights, the emergent, multiple character of taurine
forms of existence become apparent.The sickness : sociality, schooling, and spirit possession amongst Amerindian youth in the savannahs of GuyanaStafford-Walter, Courtney Rosehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/155492019-04-01T09:32:07Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZThe goal of this thesis is to explore the recent changes in the social landscape of a
Wapishana village, due to long-term separation from kin. I consider the impact of a recent
educational shift from small scale community based education to regional boarding schools on
family life and community structure amongst Amerindian people in the hinterland of Region 9,
Guyana. Furthermore, the project analyzes an emergent form of spirit possession that affects
almost exclusively young women who live in the dormitories, locally referred to as the sickness.
Using the sickness as an analytical lens, the thesis examines the ways in which young Amerindian
women navigate a shift in expectations from their parents and communities as well as how they
experience this rapid social change and transformation.
Various vantage points employed in the analysis of the sickness help to illustrate the
complexities of the current lived reality of Amerindian life. By exploring the experience of
kinship and community in the Wapishana village of Sand Creek, it is possible to demonstrate
how these relationships are produced and reproduced in everyday life through the sharing of
space and substance. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider different aspects of the Creole and
Amerindian notions of the spiritual world and their intervowenness in Wapishana lives, drawing
out human and non-human agency and how they effect change in the world. Additionally,
drawing on the anthropology of education, the thesis identifies the influence the state has on
people’s lives through institutionalized education, and locates this process within the wider
context of historical indigenous residential schools. The ethnographic data on the experience of
the sickness is put in dialogue and contrasted with other conceptions of spiritual vulnerability in
Amerindian communities, examples of ‘mass hysteria’ in schools or other institutional settings in
other parts of the world, and the Afro-Caribbean experience of spirit possession. Finally,
through an analysis of the etiology of the sickness, the final chapter draws on Amazonian literature
to examine the embodiment of gender and the local gendered history of knowledge production
in the area.
The sickness is a phenomenon that permeates life in Southern Guyana for Amerindian
youth, their families, and their communities. Undoubtedly, these various themes found in
Wapishana young women’s lives influence one another, irrespective of an ultimate manifestation
of spirit possession. In the concluding section I show how these themes can be placed in the
wider Amazonian framework of alterity and ‘Other-becoming’, illustrating how this
phenomenon provides a productive tool for the analysis of the experience of rapid social change
among Amerindian youth and the impact of these transformations throughout the region.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZStafford-Walter, Courtney RoseThe goal of this thesis is to explore the recent changes in the social landscape of a
Wapishana village, due to long-term separation from kin. I consider the impact of a recent
educational shift from small scale community based education to regional boarding schools on
family life and community structure amongst Amerindian people in the hinterland of Region 9,
Guyana. Furthermore, the project analyzes an emergent form of spirit possession that affects
almost exclusively young women who live in the dormitories, locally referred to as the sickness.
Using the sickness as an analytical lens, the thesis examines the ways in which young Amerindian
women navigate a shift in expectations from their parents and communities as well as how they
experience this rapid social change and transformation.
Various vantage points employed in the analysis of the sickness help to illustrate the
complexities of the current lived reality of Amerindian life. By exploring the experience of
kinship and community in the Wapishana village of Sand Creek, it is possible to demonstrate
how these relationships are produced and reproduced in everyday life through the sharing of
space and substance. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider different aspects of the Creole and
Amerindian notions of the spiritual world and their intervowenness in Wapishana lives, drawing
out human and non-human agency and how they effect change in the world. Additionally,
drawing on the anthropology of education, the thesis identifies the influence the state has on
people’s lives through institutionalized education, and locates this process within the wider
context of historical indigenous residential schools. The ethnographic data on the experience of
the sickness is put in dialogue and contrasted with other conceptions of spiritual vulnerability in
Amerindian communities, examples of ‘mass hysteria’ in schools or other institutional settings in
other parts of the world, and the Afro-Caribbean experience of spirit possession. Finally,
through an analysis of the etiology of the sickness, the final chapter draws on Amazonian literature
to examine the embodiment of gender and the local gendered history of knowledge production
in the area.
The sickness is a phenomenon that permeates life in Southern Guyana for Amerindian
youth, their families, and their communities. Undoubtedly, these various themes found in
Wapishana young women’s lives influence one another, irrespective of an ultimate manifestation
of spirit possession. In the concluding section I show how these themes can be placed in the
wider Amazonian framework of alterity and ‘Other-becoming’, illustrating how this
phenomenon provides a productive tool for the analysis of the experience of rapid social change
among Amerindian youth and the impact of these transformations throughout the region.Becoming the centaur : developing non-dominant human-horse relationships in YorkshireFerrier, Kirsty Roisin Cameronhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/155482019-04-01T09:29:58Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZThis project will add to and build upon the existing anthropological literature on
human-animal relations by challenging how categories such as ‘nature’, ‘culture’,
‘ethics’, ‘domestication’, and ‘kinship’ are deployed in a multispecies ethnography. I
will use the knowledge practices of natural horsemanship in the UK as a lens to
explore them through ideas of domination, the role of exemplars, personhood,
becoming-with, ideas of freedom and control, the role of touch and embodied
learning, mutual emotional responses, and the development of ‘skilled visions’. By
building on the emergent anthropological field of multi-species ethnography through
this ethically charged life-world, I propose to investigate natural horsemanship so that
the outcome is relevant to the anthropological community, but also of interest for
animal behaviourists, welfare experts, biologists, the ‘part-time-practitioners’ who
were my informants, and more broadly, to the general public with an interest in
human-animal relationships. It will hopefully provide new insights on multi-species
ethnographies; expanding the potential of such endeavours by creating new
anthropological theory on areas such as animal welfare, ethical worlding, kin-like
relationships, and how the horse as an agentive subject in these relationships can
affect these outcomes. This knowledge can then engage with branches of biological
and veterinary science and provide detailed knowledge for animal welfare experts. It
will consequently provide critical reflections on present equine training and welfare in
the UK.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZFerrier, Kirsty Roisin CameronThis project will add to and build upon the existing anthropological literature on
human-animal relations by challenging how categories such as ‘nature’, ‘culture’,
‘ethics’, ‘domestication’, and ‘kinship’ are deployed in a multispecies ethnography. I
will use the knowledge practices of natural horsemanship in the UK as a lens to
explore them through ideas of domination, the role of exemplars, personhood,
becoming-with, ideas of freedom and control, the role of touch and embodied
learning, mutual emotional responses, and the development of ‘skilled visions’. By
building on the emergent anthropological field of multi-species ethnography through
this ethically charged life-world, I propose to investigate natural horsemanship so that
the outcome is relevant to the anthropological community, but also of interest for
animal behaviourists, welfare experts, biologists, the ‘part-time-practitioners’ who
were my informants, and more broadly, to the general public with an interest in
human-animal relationships. It will hopefully provide new insights on multi-species
ethnographies; expanding the potential of such endeavours by creating new
anthropological theory on areas such as animal welfare, ethical worlding, kin-like
relationships, and how the horse as an agentive subject in these relationships can
affect these outcomes. This knowledge can then engage with branches of biological
and veterinary science and provide detailed knowledge for animal welfare experts. It
will consequently provide critical reflections on present equine training and welfare in
the UK."Doctors of our knowledge" : kinship, research, and embodiment in an Amerindian village in GuyanaArze, Sebastianhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/155452022-10-14T09:10:31Z2018-01-01T00:00:00ZEthnography of how people in Surama—a mostly Makushi, Amerindian Village in the North
Rupununi of Region 9 in Guyana—conceive of “work” as social formation, “development” as a local
manifestation, and knowledge tied to being supports an argument that foreign power is obviated
through the formation of similar bodied kin in the community.
The focus on a single community, Surama, is a methodological choice born out of previous
anthropological understandings of community-settlements as fluid, comprised of consanguineal kin,
and leadership as non-coercive and limited to each community. Today, Amerindian Villages are
spatially fixed, and administered by Village Councils—the most local branch of government. To
understand how people in Amerindian Villages conceive of politics and kinship today, I had to myself
become more familiar. I resided in one community, with one family. I took part both in what my
hosts described as “tradition”, and “development”.
People in Surama described tensions in changing ways of being social. While they champion sociality
associated with “tradition”, they manifested “development” as a contribution to the wider world. In
this way, they carried what they considered proper social personhood, sharing and willingful
contributions, to the wider world.
People in Surama conceive of “tradition” and “culture” through a history of mediating outside
researchers’ and policy-makers’ interest in their lives. They recognize foreign interest in their visible
knowledge of the forest, and share this knowledge through these concepts. Simultaneously, these
concepts keep certain ways of knowing distant from researchers. Embodied ways of knowing and
interacting with persons in the forest are called “belief”, and are limited to believers. My hosts
maintained this as a fundamental difference in our ways of knowing. Their knowing is a doing with
kin; ours is writing about that doing. Through extending their knowing and ways of being social to
researchers, however, they turn us into similar bodied kin.
2018-01-01T00:00:00ZArze, SebastianEthnography of how people in Surama—a mostly Makushi, Amerindian Village in the North
Rupununi of Region 9 in Guyana—conceive of “work” as social formation, “development” as a local
manifestation, and knowledge tied to being supports an argument that foreign power is obviated
through the formation of similar bodied kin in the community.
The focus on a single community, Surama, is a methodological choice born out of previous
anthropological understandings of community-settlements as fluid, comprised of consanguineal kin,
and leadership as non-coercive and limited to each community. Today, Amerindian Villages are
spatially fixed, and administered by Village Councils—the most local branch of government. To
understand how people in Amerindian Villages conceive of politics and kinship today, I had to myself
become more familiar. I resided in one community, with one family. I took part both in what my
hosts described as “tradition”, and “development”.
People in Surama described tensions in changing ways of being social. While they champion sociality
associated with “tradition”, they manifested “development” as a contribution to the wider world. In
this way, they carried what they considered proper social personhood, sharing and willingful
contributions, to the wider world.
People in Surama conceive of “tradition” and “culture” through a history of mediating outside
researchers’ and policy-makers’ interest in their lives. They recognize foreign interest in their visible
knowledge of the forest, and share this knowledge through these concepts. Simultaneously, these
concepts keep certain ways of knowing distant from researchers. Embodied ways of knowing and
interacting with persons in the forest are called “belief”, and are limited to believers. My hosts
maintained this as a fundamental difference in our ways of knowing. Their knowing is a doing with
kin; ours is writing about that doing. Through extending their knowing and ways of being social to
researchers, however, they turn us into similar bodied kin.'Mesa' and carnival : a word and an event which illustrate aspects of the Quechua view of the world and man's position in it, based upon fieldwork in the Cochabamba Valley, BoliviaCummings, Peter Lionel Vickeryhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/155362019-04-01T09:30:43Z1980-01-01T00:00:00Z1980-01-01T00:00:00ZCummings, Peter Lionel VickeryThe nature and causes of allomorphy in Cuzco Quechua : with special reference to the marking of person and the 'empty morph' ni-Corbett, Anne F.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/155052019-04-01T09:28:56Z1994-01-01T00:00:00ZIt is the purpose of this thesis to examine the reasons why Cuzco Quechua, an Amerindian language of Latin America, uses allomorphs, or multiple forms, to represent the minimal semantic units of the language (or morphemes). Starting from the Initial hypothesis that the relatively minor role of allomorphy in contemporary Cuzco Quechua indicates the earlier absence of that allomorphy, the motivation for the introduction and retention of allomorphy is examined, as this relates to a number of characteristic types; Vowel Deletion, affecting final suffixes, Consonant Cluster Simplification and Vowel Dissimilation, affecting suffixes of the verb stem, and the potential allomorphy of the suffixes of Person, pronominal and verbal. Such allomorphy proves to be the result of attempts to contain new morphological developments within existing structural preferences of syllable configuration, and to limit the potential for semantic ambiguity, arising out of identity of form, or homonymy. The unanticipated result of such a study is the implication in all cases considered of an earlier process of affixation, leading to the formation of untypical morph-forms, Allomorphy is seen to be the by-product of compensatory change, introduced to modify the results of previous developments, In particular, the role of the 'empty morph', ni, of nominal Person is found to be implicated in the derivational history of all Quechua suffixes of Person, and its origin imputed to an early role of the verb ni-, 'to say', used with auxiliary function. Based on the evidence of allomorphy, the conclusion is drawn that many of the suffixes of Cuzco Quechua owe their origin to syntactic forms of expression, indicating that the role of the syntactic construction in this typically agglutinative language was formerly more significant than is now recognised.
1994-01-01T00:00:00ZCorbett, Anne F.It is the purpose of this thesis to examine the reasons why Cuzco Quechua, an Amerindian language of Latin America, uses allomorphs, or multiple forms, to represent the minimal semantic units of the language (or morphemes). Starting from the Initial hypothesis that the relatively minor role of allomorphy in contemporary Cuzco Quechua indicates the earlier absence of that allomorphy, the motivation for the introduction and retention of allomorphy is examined, as this relates to a number of characteristic types; Vowel Deletion, affecting final suffixes, Consonant Cluster Simplification and Vowel Dissimilation, affecting suffixes of the verb stem, and the potential allomorphy of the suffixes of Person, pronominal and verbal. Such allomorphy proves to be the result of attempts to contain new morphological developments within existing structural preferences of syllable configuration, and to limit the potential for semantic ambiguity, arising out of identity of form, or homonymy. The unanticipated result of such a study is the implication in all cases considered of an earlier process of affixation, leading to the formation of untypical morph-forms, Allomorphy is seen to be the by-product of compensatory change, introduced to modify the results of previous developments, In particular, the role of the 'empty morph', ni, of nominal Person is found to be implicated in the derivational history of all Quechua suffixes of Person, and its origin imputed to an early role of the verb ni-, 'to say', used with auxiliary function. Based on the evidence of allomorphy, the conclusion is drawn that many of the suffixes of Cuzco Quechua owe their origin to syntactic forms of expression, indicating that the role of the syntactic construction in this typically agglutinative language was formerly more significant than is now recognised.Sexual violence : dynamics, aftermath and interventionEdward, Katherine E.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/154132019-04-01T09:30:05Z1997-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis examines the nature of sexual violence, the trauma experienced by survivors, how report rate for this type of crime can be increased, and how secondary victimisation of survivors can be prevented. Laboratory examination of the attributions made about survivors of sexual violence found that they not only differ from those made about survivors of non-sexual crimes, but also that negative attitudes are strongly related to the gender-role attitudes of the attributor. Empirical research also suggested that providing written information may not be sufficient to alter negative attitudes. Results of a general public crime survey (N=266) suggest that the trauma experienced by survivors of sexual violence is higher than that of survivors of other crime types. Specific examination of the experiences and recovery of survivors of sexual violence (N=42) found that severe assaults, recent victimisation, and assault by a known offender, are related to high levels of symptomatology. Negative self-attributions and perceptions were also found to be related to high levels of symptomatology, and these cognitions were found to be the strongest predictors of recovery. Unlike previous findings with other subject groups, self-blame was not found to be related to increased control. Examination of post-assault factors suggests that the low report rate for sexual crimes may be due to lack of faith in the police and fear of Criminal Justice interactions. In addition, it was found that dissatisfaction with report decision was highly related to levels of symptomatology. A model of how assault factors, survivor cognitions and post-assault interactions may relate to each other and symptomatology is presented. The findings of the survey and laboratory research are discussed in terms of their implications for successful support of survivors, increasing report rate for sexual crimes, the prevention of secondary victimisation, and future psychological research.
1997-01-01T00:00:00ZEdward, Katherine E.This thesis examines the nature of sexual violence, the trauma experienced by survivors, how report rate for this type of crime can be increased, and how secondary victimisation of survivors can be prevented. Laboratory examination of the attributions made about survivors of sexual violence found that they not only differ from those made about survivors of non-sexual crimes, but also that negative attitudes are strongly related to the gender-role attitudes of the attributor. Empirical research also suggested that providing written information may not be sufficient to alter negative attitudes. Results of a general public crime survey (N=266) suggest that the trauma experienced by survivors of sexual violence is higher than that of survivors of other crime types. Specific examination of the experiences and recovery of survivors of sexual violence (N=42) found that severe assaults, recent victimisation, and assault by a known offender, are related to high levels of symptomatology. Negative self-attributions and perceptions were also found to be related to high levels of symptomatology, and these cognitions were found to be the strongest predictors of recovery. Unlike previous findings with other subject groups, self-blame was not found to be related to increased control. Examination of post-assault factors suggests that the low report rate for sexual crimes may be due to lack of faith in the police and fear of Criminal Justice interactions. In addition, it was found that dissatisfaction with report decision was highly related to levels of symptomatology. A model of how assault factors, survivor cognitions and post-assault interactions may relate to each other and symptomatology is presented. The findings of the survey and laboratory research are discussed in terms of their implications for successful support of survivors, increasing report rate for sexual crimes, the prevention of secondary victimisation, and future psychological research.Emotional state, event-related impact and blame cognitions : a study of secondary victims of murderRowland, Ann-Stacy Kahlerhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/154122019-04-01T09:29:00Z1998-01-01T00:00:00ZPrevious studies have found a relationship between attributions of blame and traumatic events such as crime, illness, and accidents/disasters, albeit inconclusive as to the benefits or detriments of self- and other-blame on adjustment outcome (e.g., Janoff-Bulman, 1979; Joseph, Brewin, Yule & Williams, 1991,1993; Derry & McLachlan, 1995; Frazier & Schauben, 1994). The effects of attributions of blame on the adjustment outcome of family members bereaved through murder has been neglected. Therefore, little is known about such benefits to adjustment in this population. In addition, no longitudinal research has been conducted so little is known about this process of adjustment. A retrospective longitudinal study investigated emotional state and event-related impact, attributions of blame, control and just world cognitions, revenge and disabling distress. Thirty-four family members, recruited from "Families of Murdered Children", were interviewed and completed four psychological measures. They were followed up six and twelve months later. On all three occasions, subjects showed high levels of negative emotional state and event-related impact, especially older, female and support seeking subjects. Self-blame and feelings of revenge were linked to higher levels of negative emotional state and event-related impact, especially in female subjects. Control and just world cognitions were not related to emotional state and event-related impact. Negative emotional state at Time 1 was predictive of poor overall adjustment at Time 2 and Time 3, while gender was predictive of poor overall adjustment at Time 2. Subjects suffering from distress that interfered with their daily lives at Time 3 had higher negative emotional state and event-related impact at Time 1, Time 2 and Time 3. In order to further investigate the effects of blame attributions on mood, a randomised between-subjects laboratory study was conducted. Eighty-seven undergraduates were assigned to one of three writing conditions (self-blame, other-blame and no blame/control) with mood being assessed before and after writing. Results showed that negative mood had been cognitively induced, however, no condition effects occurred. The mood effect was greater for women than men. Implications for theory, practice and future research in relation to the main findings are discussed.
1998-01-01T00:00:00ZRowland, Ann-Stacy KahlerPrevious studies have found a relationship between attributions of blame and traumatic events such as crime, illness, and accidents/disasters, albeit inconclusive as to the benefits or detriments of self- and other-blame on adjustment outcome (e.g., Janoff-Bulman, 1979; Joseph, Brewin, Yule & Williams, 1991,1993; Derry & McLachlan, 1995; Frazier & Schauben, 1994). The effects of attributions of blame on the adjustment outcome of family members bereaved through murder has been neglected. Therefore, little is known about such benefits to adjustment in this population. In addition, no longitudinal research has been conducted so little is known about this process of adjustment. A retrospective longitudinal study investigated emotional state and event-related impact, attributions of blame, control and just world cognitions, revenge and disabling distress. Thirty-four family members, recruited from "Families of Murdered Children", were interviewed and completed four psychological measures. They were followed up six and twelve months later. On all three occasions, subjects showed high levels of negative emotional state and event-related impact, especially older, female and support seeking subjects. Self-blame and feelings of revenge were linked to higher levels of negative emotional state and event-related impact, especially in female subjects. Control and just world cognitions were not related to emotional state and event-related impact. Negative emotional state at Time 1 was predictive of poor overall adjustment at Time 2 and Time 3, while gender was predictive of poor overall adjustment at Time 2. Subjects suffering from distress that interfered with their daily lives at Time 3 had higher negative emotional state and event-related impact at Time 1, Time 2 and Time 3. In order to further investigate the effects of blame attributions on mood, a randomised between-subjects laboratory study was conducted. Eighty-seven undergraduates were assigned to one of three writing conditions (self-blame, other-blame and no blame/control) with mood being assessed before and after writing. Results showed that negative mood had been cognitively induced, however, no condition effects occurred. The mood effect was greater for women than men. Implications for theory, practice and future research in relation to the main findings are discussed.The concept of the Outlook Tower in the work of Patrick GeddesCuthbert, Michaelhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/154022019-04-01T09:29:05Z1987-01-01T00:00:00ZAs an academic, a scholar and a thinker Patrick Geddes worked in a wide and diverse range of intellectual fields. He was active in biology and botany, geography, sociology, what came to be called town planning, history and the theory and practice of the social sciences. As a man of practical affairs and action he was a patron of art and architecture, rescuer of the Old Town in Edinburgh, founder and funder of the Edinburgh Summer School and a College in Montpellier. As well as Edinburgh he was active in London, Paris, Dublin, America, India, Jerusalem and Montpellier. This protean diversity has called for the two responses from interpreters of his work. The first was to stress the town planning component at the expense of the rest. He has been monopolised by the town planners chiefly through the influence of Lewis Mumford and to a lesser extent Patrick Abercrombie and Frank Mears. The second was to explain his polymathic diversity as the work of an extraordinary personality: such studies have been biographical with a tendency to flattery. This thesis seeks to understand Patrick Geddes as part of the cultural and intellectual life of Scotland. The origins of his town planning work is examined as part of the particular traditions and history of Edinburgh just as his regional planning analyses are seen as part of the tradition of resistance to the cultural domination of London, the imperial metropolis. The role of the Outlook Tower is interpreted as a component of his general theory of pedagogy especially as his concept of the museum relates to this theory. The analyses of his attempt to create a Scottish Renaissance help explain the weakness of his more general sociological and ecological theories.
1987-01-01T00:00:00ZCuthbert, MichaelAs an academic, a scholar and a thinker Patrick Geddes worked in a wide and diverse range of intellectual fields. He was active in biology and botany, geography, sociology, what came to be called town planning, history and the theory and practice of the social sciences. As a man of practical affairs and action he was a patron of art and architecture, rescuer of the Old Town in Edinburgh, founder and funder of the Edinburgh Summer School and a College in Montpellier. As well as Edinburgh he was active in London, Paris, Dublin, America, India, Jerusalem and Montpellier. This protean diversity has called for the two responses from interpreters of his work. The first was to stress the town planning component at the expense of the rest. He has been monopolised by the town planners chiefly through the influence of Lewis Mumford and to a lesser extent Patrick Abercrombie and Frank Mears. The second was to explain his polymathic diversity as the work of an extraordinary personality: such studies have been biographical with a tendency to flattery. This thesis seeks to understand Patrick Geddes as part of the cultural and intellectual life of Scotland. The origins of his town planning work is examined as part of the particular traditions and history of Edinburgh just as his regional planning analyses are seen as part of the tradition of resistance to the cultural domination of London, the imperial metropolis. The role of the Outlook Tower is interpreted as a component of his general theory of pedagogy especially as his concept of the museum relates to this theory. The analyses of his attempt to create a Scottish Renaissance help explain the weakness of his more general sociological and ecological theories.Humiliation : a theme in ecclesiastical folkloreGuy, John Purchasehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/153902019-04-01T09:32:12Z1983-01-01T00:00:00ZThis work is an investigation into the background of a phemomenon found in the field of folklore, namely, public shame. In particular, the Spanish Inquisition provides the context for an enquiry into why a people accepted the humiliation of its fellows in the name of religion. The main quarry of the Inquisition were apostate Jews, who, after forcible conversions to Christianity, were spied on and betrayed whenever the slightest deviation from Catholic dogma was perceived. Contrition, expressed by public exhibition in an auto-de-fe or by burning, was held to be Penance. The enquiry shows the development of public penance from the appearance of Jewish monotheism through to the first centuries of Christianity (Chapter II). In the Christian era, penance was a voluntary act of self-humiliation, but later innovations from the Celtic Church modified its stringencies. Meanwhile the Spanish Church maintained the older, harsher forms (Chapter III). The Papal Inquisition of 1232 insisted on public penance by the wearing of "crosses", and its whole machinery of inquisition passed to the Spanish Inquisition (Chapter IV). Then, the Jewish persecution by the Spanish Church from 303 to 1480 is traced. Forcible conversion of Jews in 1391 split Spanish society into Old Christians and New, from which grew the problem of heresy (apostasy). By 1478 converso Jews held important positions in Church and State (Appendix A), and the Church thought it saw, through apostates, a threat to both the purity of the Faith and to Spanish sovereignty. Reacting to heresy, the Inquisition carried its penalties to such extremes as to suggest that its chief motivation was fear (Chapter V) . Chapters VI and VII set out the extent of the public humiliation of accused persons: Chapter VIII deals with the strong correspondence between the components of a "craze" such as the witchhunts of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe, and the principal elements of the Inquisition. The origins of both seem to lie in the realm of imaginary fear and hatred.
1983-01-01T00:00:00ZGuy, John PurchaseThis work is an investigation into the background of a phemomenon found in the field of folklore, namely, public shame. In particular, the Spanish Inquisition provides the context for an enquiry into why a people accepted the humiliation of its fellows in the name of religion. The main quarry of the Inquisition were apostate Jews, who, after forcible conversions to Christianity, were spied on and betrayed whenever the slightest deviation from Catholic dogma was perceived. Contrition, expressed by public exhibition in an auto-de-fe or by burning, was held to be Penance. The enquiry shows the development of public penance from the appearance of Jewish monotheism through to the first centuries of Christianity (Chapter II). In the Christian era, penance was a voluntary act of self-humiliation, but later innovations from the Celtic Church modified its stringencies. Meanwhile the Spanish Church maintained the older, harsher forms (Chapter III). The Papal Inquisition of 1232 insisted on public penance by the wearing of "crosses", and its whole machinery of inquisition passed to the Spanish Inquisition (Chapter IV). Then, the Jewish persecution by the Spanish Church from 303 to 1480 is traced. Forcible conversion of Jews in 1391 split Spanish society into Old Christians and New, from which grew the problem of heresy (apostasy). By 1478 converso Jews held important positions in Church and State (Appendix A), and the Church thought it saw, through apostates, a threat to both the purity of the Faith and to Spanish sovereignty. Reacting to heresy, the Inquisition carried its penalties to such extremes as to suggest that its chief motivation was fear (Chapter V) . Chapters VI and VII set out the extent of the public humiliation of accused persons: Chapter VIII deals with the strong correspondence between the components of a "craze" such as the witchhunts of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe, and the principal elements of the Inquisition. The origins of both seem to lie in the realm of imaginary fear and hatred.Quichua tales from Cañar, EcuadorHoward-Malverde, Rosaleen E.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/153892019-04-01T09:31:35Z1979-01-01T00:00:00ZThe thesis comprises a classification and analysis of 64 tales told by Indian inhabitants of the rural communities around the highland town of Canar, Southern Central Ecuador, The informants all had Quichua as their mother tongue and, with the exception of 4 texts, used it in the telling of the tales. These were tape-recorded, transcribed with the help of a Quichua assistant, and are presented in full together with English translations. The classification of texts is based largely upon criteria of contents, although both genre and tale structure are also taken into account, all three considerations being closely interrelated. Classification according to content owes something of theory and method to the Finnish-American school led by Aarne and Thompson (Thompson 1955-58, Aarne and Thompson 1951). The discussion of genre definition takes Bascom's article (1965) as a starting point, and also takes into account more recent statements on the subject. The consideration of structure as a criterion at the classification stage is in accordance with the arguments of Propp (1968) and Dundes (1962b, 1964). The classification scheme resulted in a breakdown of the tales into four sections (A-D), The largest of these is Section A, whose 32 tales will be shown to adhere to a common structural framework, whilst the sub-sections into which they are divided reflect their differences in surface content. Sections B and C are both examples of tale cycles, bound by this definition to be grouped together. Section D comprises humorous tales, largely borrowings from mestizo culture, with little in common on grounds of structure. The analysis seeks to examine the relationship between tales within the sections, at the levels of both structure and content if this is appropriate; where it is not, remarks are confined to content alone. The analysis of both structure and content calls for some comparisons to be drawn with material from elsewhere. Such comparisons are confined to the Ecuadorean highlands, to a lesser extent Peru, and incidental reference is made to other geographical areas, especially where borrowings are concerned, Structural analysis was most applicable to Section A, an apparently heterogeneous group of legends and folktales which, it is argued, are bound together by common underlying features of structure. These features appear to derive from the local legends of the area, and have then encouraged the adoption and development of certain folktales whose structure was compatible with such already existing forms. The theoretical basis for this approach is to be found in Dundes (cit.), Maranda and Kongas Maranda (1971), and Hymes (1971). The breakdown of texts to reveal their structure takes both the 'syntagmatic' and the 'paradigmatic' aspects of the latter into account (see Dundee's intro, to Propp 1968:xi-xii). In order to reveal more clearly the paradigmatic characteristics of the texts, and the structural affinities that exist between tales at this level, use is made of Levi-Straussian terminology and the methods he uses for the schematic cross-comparison of tales have been adapted (Levi-Strauss 1970, 1972), Analysis of content follows two main lines: in the case of the legendary material it is particularly appropriate to examine the relationship that apparently exists between the local belief system and oral narrative. In the case of folktales, it is relevant to consider content on comparative lines, examining the nature and/or distribution of episodes as they occur in Canar and as they are found elsewhere in Andean narrative tradition. The works of Morote Best were particularly useful for this purpose (1950b, 1953b, 1954, 1957, 1958a, 1958b). The main aim of the thesis is therefore to analyse the structure and content of the tales in order to show the underlying relationships that bind them within a coherent system of narrative tradition. Some connections at both these levels are also to be seen between sections as well as within them, and these are pointed out. Material introduced from outside was adopted, it is suggested, for its compatibility with that which was already there. In addition to this, possible social and cultural reasons for the appeal of particular kinds of tale in the area are discussed as relevant.
1979-01-01T00:00:00ZHoward-Malverde, Rosaleen E.The thesis comprises a classification and analysis of 64 tales told by Indian inhabitants of the rural communities around the highland town of Canar, Southern Central Ecuador, The informants all had Quichua as their mother tongue and, with the exception of 4 texts, used it in the telling of the tales. These were tape-recorded, transcribed with the help of a Quichua assistant, and are presented in full together with English translations. The classification of texts is based largely upon criteria of contents, although both genre and tale structure are also taken into account, all three considerations being closely interrelated. Classification according to content owes something of theory and method to the Finnish-American school led by Aarne and Thompson (Thompson 1955-58, Aarne and Thompson 1951). The discussion of genre definition takes Bascom's article (1965) as a starting point, and also takes into account more recent statements on the subject. The consideration of structure as a criterion at the classification stage is in accordance with the arguments of Propp (1968) and Dundes (1962b, 1964). The classification scheme resulted in a breakdown of the tales into four sections (A-D), The largest of these is Section A, whose 32 tales will be shown to adhere to a common structural framework, whilst the sub-sections into which they are divided reflect their differences in surface content. Sections B and C are both examples of tale cycles, bound by this definition to be grouped together. Section D comprises humorous tales, largely borrowings from mestizo culture, with little in common on grounds of structure. The analysis seeks to examine the relationship between tales within the sections, at the levels of both structure and content if this is appropriate; where it is not, remarks are confined to content alone. The analysis of both structure and content calls for some comparisons to be drawn with material from elsewhere. Such comparisons are confined to the Ecuadorean highlands, to a lesser extent Peru, and incidental reference is made to other geographical areas, especially where borrowings are concerned, Structural analysis was most applicable to Section A, an apparently heterogeneous group of legends and folktales which, it is argued, are bound together by common underlying features of structure. These features appear to derive from the local legends of the area, and have then encouraged the adoption and development of certain folktales whose structure was compatible with such already existing forms. The theoretical basis for this approach is to be found in Dundes (cit.), Maranda and Kongas Maranda (1971), and Hymes (1971). The breakdown of texts to reveal their structure takes both the 'syntagmatic' and the 'paradigmatic' aspects of the latter into account (see Dundee's intro, to Propp 1968:xi-xii). In order to reveal more clearly the paradigmatic characteristics of the texts, and the structural affinities that exist between tales at this level, use is made of Levi-Straussian terminology and the methods he uses for the schematic cross-comparison of tales have been adapted (Levi-Strauss 1970, 1972), Analysis of content follows two main lines: in the case of the legendary material it is particularly appropriate to examine the relationship that apparently exists between the local belief system and oral narrative. In the case of folktales, it is relevant to consider content on comparative lines, examining the nature and/or distribution of episodes as they occur in Canar and as they are found elsewhere in Andean narrative tradition. The works of Morote Best were particularly useful for this purpose (1950b, 1953b, 1954, 1957, 1958a, 1958b). The main aim of the thesis is therefore to analyse the structure and content of the tales in order to show the underlying relationships that bind them within a coherent system of narrative tradition. Some connections at both these levels are also to be seen between sections as well as within them, and these are pointed out. Material introduced from outside was adopted, it is suggested, for its compatibility with that which was already there. In addition to this, possible social and cultural reasons for the appeal of particular kinds of tale in the area are discussed as relevant.Mimesis, mirror and mask : modern imaginaries of self and otherCeuppens, Godelieve Bambihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/153882018-07-13T14:39:25Z1997-01-01T00:00:00ZThis dissertation set out to investigate the thesis that the Modern Western Self has "created" Self as a self-creating, creative category, and in denying all possibilities of originality to the Other, has "created" the Other as an essentially imitative creature, a mirror-image of Self. I have in particular compared the conceptualisations of "woman", "child" and "primitive" as Other with specific reference to the British colonial experience in Ireland and the overseas territories. I argue that these ideas go back to a conceptualisation of the human self as dual, consisting of self and mask, and self and social roles. I discuss the development of this discourse against the background of the growth of imperialism which coincided with a didactic discourse and the spread of syphilis which led to an increased control of children's and women's sexuality, and was a key concept in the conceptualisations of the notions of age groups, genders, classes, and "races". Starting point for my discussion of imitation is Aristotle's conceptualisation of mimesis in the performative arts in Poetica, and Modern debates on his ideas. I propose that the notion of "imitation" as an attribute of the Other needs to be historicised and situated within the development of what has been called a domesticated imperialism, i.e. an imperialism built on the domestic idea which unites people under the symbolic roof of the imperial "home" but separates them in terms of age, gender, class, and "race". This domesticated imperialism has its roots in the mercantile imperialism which developed from the sixteenth century onwards and came to full fruition in the nineteenth century. It attributed a special role to reproductive sexuality in that it was through the control of inter- and intra-sex sexual relations that boundaries between ages, classes and "races" could be maintained or broken down; the rhetoric of the Other's imitativeness was therefore closely tied up with the rhetoric of control of the Other's sexuality. While my investigations have confirmed the significance of the notions of creativity and createdness, originality and imitativeness for ideas of Selfhood and Otherness, they have established that notions of "womanhood" as opposed to "manhood", "childhood" as opposed to "adulthood", "primitivity" as opposed to "civilisation" are always impinged upon by age, gender, sexual object choice, marital status, occupation, ethnicity, "race", class, religious affiliation etc.. They have made clear that Self and Other engage in a number of relations rather than merely being oppositional, and that creativity and createdness, originality and imitativeness can, to various degrees, be associated with either category. However, towards the end of the nineteenth century an academic discourse developed which conceptualised Self and Other as antithetical and mutual exclusive, if sometimes complementary categories. This discourse which established the supremacy of the Western adult male of independent means developed partially in reaction to public debates which questioned the primacy of the father and recognised the creative powers of the sexual, social and/or "racial" Other for the socialisation of the Self Recent studies of the Other in post-colonial theory, gender studies and social anthropology are still largely predicated on dichotomous models developed as part of this discourse in that they conventionally portray the Other as a mirror-image of the Self There is thus a congruence between (i) ideas on the relationship between Self and Other; (ii) ideas on the study of Self and Other; and (iii) ideas on the analysis of Self and Other. The dissertation proceeds to discuss the benefits of a theoretical perspective that dissolves these dichotomies through an analysis of nineteenth century discourses which acknowledged that Self and Other were mutually constituted, and a critical assessment of recent theories in psychoanalysis, anthropology and gender studies on the relation between Self and Other, with particular reference to the notion of performance which allows us to reestablish a link with Aristotle's Poetica. The dissertation goes on to question the opposition between originality and imitativeness, and concludes with the suggestion that the very concept of Self and Other needs qualification.
1997-01-01T00:00:00ZCeuppens, Godelieve BambiThis dissertation set out to investigate the thesis that the Modern Western Self has "created" Self as a self-creating, creative category, and in denying all possibilities of originality to the Other, has "created" the Other as an essentially imitative creature, a mirror-image of Self. I have in particular compared the conceptualisations of "woman", "child" and "primitive" as Other with specific reference to the British colonial experience in Ireland and the overseas territories. I argue that these ideas go back to a conceptualisation of the human self as dual, consisting of self and mask, and self and social roles. I discuss the development of this discourse against the background of the growth of imperialism which coincided with a didactic discourse and the spread of syphilis which led to an increased control of children's and women's sexuality, and was a key concept in the conceptualisations of the notions of age groups, genders, classes, and "races". Starting point for my discussion of imitation is Aristotle's conceptualisation of mimesis in the performative arts in Poetica, and Modern debates on his ideas. I propose that the notion of "imitation" as an attribute of the Other needs to be historicised and situated within the development of what has been called a domesticated imperialism, i.e. an imperialism built on the domestic idea which unites people under the symbolic roof of the imperial "home" but separates them in terms of age, gender, class, and "race". This domesticated imperialism has its roots in the mercantile imperialism which developed from the sixteenth century onwards and came to full fruition in the nineteenth century. It attributed a special role to reproductive sexuality in that it was through the control of inter- and intra-sex sexual relations that boundaries between ages, classes and "races" could be maintained or broken down; the rhetoric of the Other's imitativeness was therefore closely tied up with the rhetoric of control of the Other's sexuality. While my investigations have confirmed the significance of the notions of creativity and createdness, originality and imitativeness for ideas of Selfhood and Otherness, they have established that notions of "womanhood" as opposed to "manhood", "childhood" as opposed to "adulthood", "primitivity" as opposed to "civilisation" are always impinged upon by age, gender, sexual object choice, marital status, occupation, ethnicity, "race", class, religious affiliation etc.. They have made clear that Self and Other engage in a number of relations rather than merely being oppositional, and that creativity and createdness, originality and imitativeness can, to various degrees, be associated with either category. However, towards the end of the nineteenth century an academic discourse developed which conceptualised Self and Other as antithetical and mutual exclusive, if sometimes complementary categories. This discourse which established the supremacy of the Western adult male of independent means developed partially in reaction to public debates which questioned the primacy of the father and recognised the creative powers of the sexual, social and/or "racial" Other for the socialisation of the Self Recent studies of the Other in post-colonial theory, gender studies and social anthropology are still largely predicated on dichotomous models developed as part of this discourse in that they conventionally portray the Other as a mirror-image of the Self There is thus a congruence between (i) ideas on the relationship between Self and Other; (ii) ideas on the study of Self and Other; and (iii) ideas on the analysis of Self and Other. The dissertation proceeds to discuss the benefits of a theoretical perspective that dissolves these dichotomies through an analysis of nineteenth century discourses which acknowledged that Self and Other were mutually constituted, and a critical assessment of recent theories in psychoanalysis, anthropology and gender studies on the relation between Self and Other, with particular reference to the notion of performance which allows us to reestablish a link with Aristotle's Poetica. The dissertation goes on to question the opposition between originality and imitativeness, and concludes with the suggestion that the very concept of Self and Other needs qualification.Curandeirismo in the Reconcavo of Bahia : a study in cultural syncretism based on the fusion of African, indigenous and European curing practicesWilliams, Paul V. A.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/153842019-04-01T09:32:22Z1976-01-01T00:00:00ZThe study records thaumaturgic methods of curing and preventing illness and misfortune as practiced by curandeiros (curers, folk doctors) using an ethnographic-linguistic approach based on fieldwork in the Reconcavo area of the State of Bahia in Northeast Brazil. The Reconcavo is a fairly narrow strip of land surrounding the Bay of All the Saints with its social and economic focus at Salvador, the capital of Bahia State. The study is structured to give particular attention to an examination of the religious based on which these practices may be founded, to include condomble, a religion of African origin which became rooted in this area with the importation of slaves, principally from west Africa from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the of the nineteenth; Catholicism as introduced by the Portuguese and other Iberian colonizers; indigenous religions and Spiritism. Points of similarity in curing methods that may have existed among African, Puropean and indigenous cultures represented in the Reconcavo are also examined in an attempt trace how some of these similarities may have fused in a gradual process of syncretism to produce corandeirismo as it exists in the area today. The study is concluded with an assessment of the extent to which curandeirismo is practiced in the Reconcavo and the likelihood of its survival. Proceeding from a brief historical survey of the Reconcavo and its colonization, development and economy, the writer examines the different religious currents brought by colonization and population movement, giving a resume of the main doctrines of Spiritism and an account of traditional Candomble to include an exposition of the patterns of belief on which the present Candomble de caboclo is based. He then discusses the persistence and evolution of African religion in Brazil, and the dual role of the priest and curer in African-based religion. Aspects of the curing process such as ritual beating, fumigation, bathing and symbolic purgation of evil are then examined, together with details of ritual procedure and the incantations which accompany many of them. Powders and herbs, their properties and uses are then analysed, the function and composition of amulets in preventing and curing illness is then studied, as is the use of curing prayers, a number of which are transcribed and annotated. The study is illustrated with maps and photographs. Herbs employed in the rituals discussed are listed in appendices, and there is a glossary of non-English terms
1976-01-01T00:00:00ZWilliams, Paul V. A.The study records thaumaturgic methods of curing and preventing illness and misfortune as practiced by curandeiros (curers, folk doctors) using an ethnographic-linguistic approach based on fieldwork in the Reconcavo area of the State of Bahia in Northeast Brazil. The Reconcavo is a fairly narrow strip of land surrounding the Bay of All the Saints with its social and economic focus at Salvador, the capital of Bahia State. The study is structured to give particular attention to an examination of the religious based on which these practices may be founded, to include condomble, a religion of African origin which became rooted in this area with the importation of slaves, principally from west Africa from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the of the nineteenth; Catholicism as introduced by the Portuguese and other Iberian colonizers; indigenous religions and Spiritism. Points of similarity in curing methods that may have existed among African, Puropean and indigenous cultures represented in the Reconcavo are also examined in an attempt trace how some of these similarities may have fused in a gradual process of syncretism to produce corandeirismo as it exists in the area today. The study is concluded with an assessment of the extent to which curandeirismo is practiced in the Reconcavo and the likelihood of its survival. Proceeding from a brief historical survey of the Reconcavo and its colonization, development and economy, the writer examines the different religious currents brought by colonization and population movement, giving a resume of the main doctrines of Spiritism and an account of traditional Candomble to include an exposition of the patterns of belief on which the present Candomble de caboclo is based. He then discusses the persistence and evolution of African religion in Brazil, and the dual role of the priest and curer in African-based religion. Aspects of the curing process such as ritual beating, fumigation, bathing and symbolic purgation of evil are then examined, together with details of ritual procedure and the incantations which accompany many of them. Powders and herbs, their properties and uses are then analysed, the function and composition of amulets in preventing and curing illness is then studied, as is the use of curing prayers, a number of which are transcribed and annotated. The study is illustrated with maps and photographs. Herbs employed in the rituals discussed are listed in appendices, and there is a glossary of non-English termsAn anthropology of the 'New Age' : with special reference to Glastonbury, SomersetPrince, Ruth E. C.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/153832019-04-01T09:30:58Z1992-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an anthropological study of the New Age movement, in the area of Glastonbury, Somerset, England. It is based upon one year's participant observation in Glastonbury from October 1989 to November 1990. The thesis looks at the philosophy of living which these people, referred to as 'New Agers', have adopted, and which they believe to present an alternative to the values of mainstream Western society. I examine how they combine their ideas with the pressures of living as a sub-culture within British society. I begin this thesis by posing the question, what is the New Age?' In doing so 1 raise questions about the classification of groups, notions of community, and the boundary of the group. Introducing my ethnographic example of the New Age movement in Glastonbury, I attempt to provide a backdrop in the context of locality. I then proceed to present the ethnography under the themes of holism and individualism. The analytical commentary that follows the ethnography discusses individualism and holism with reference to Louis Dumont's work. In contrast to Dumont I present the two ideas as a complement rather than mutually exclusive. I conclude by looking at the New Age movement within the wider historical context of Utopian groups.
1992-01-01T00:00:00ZPrince, Ruth E. C.This thesis is an anthropological study of the New Age movement, in the area of Glastonbury, Somerset, England. It is based upon one year's participant observation in Glastonbury from October 1989 to November 1990. The thesis looks at the philosophy of living which these people, referred to as 'New Agers', have adopted, and which they believe to present an alternative to the values of mainstream Western society. I examine how they combine their ideas with the pressures of living as a sub-culture within British society. I begin this thesis by posing the question, what is the New Age?' In doing so 1 raise questions about the classification of groups, notions of community, and the boundary of the group. Introducing my ethnographic example of the New Age movement in Glastonbury, I attempt to provide a backdrop in the context of locality. I then proceed to present the ethnography under the themes of holism and individualism. The analytical commentary that follows the ethnography discusses individualism and holism with reference to Louis Dumont's work. In contrast to Dumont I present the two ideas as a complement rather than mutually exclusive. I conclude by looking at the New Age movement within the wider historical context of Utopian groups.Discussing "human rights" : an anthropological exposition on "human rights" discourseBajor, William J.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/153822019-04-01T09:29:16Z1997-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis examines how the displaced Sudanese in Egypt, Kenya, and the United Kingdom discuss the topic of "Human Rights". Whereas many studies on "Human Rights" are primarily concerned with the opinions of outsiders, an attempt is made here to provide an alternative perspective in that the focus of this dissertation is on how the displaced Sudanese, themselves, discuss "Human Rights" in view of their situation as exiles. The thesis begins by tracing the historical evolution of the 'Western' concept of "Human Rights" and investigating the historical relationship between Anthropology and "Human Rights". Attention is paid to the role of the doctrine of "cultural relativism" in the discipline of Anthropology. After briefly looking at Sudan's geographical and social makeup, I explain the difficulties I encountered as an independent scholar conducting research on "Human Rights" and Sudan. This is followed by descriptions of the fieldwork locations. What comes next is the heart and soul of the thesis. After giving brief descriptions of the interviewees, 1 analyse how the interviews were conducted and explain how the issue of "Politics" dominated practically every discussion with the interviewees. Next, excerpts from nineteen interviews are presented for the reader to get acquainted with the conversations between the Interviewees and myself. Finally, an examination is made of how "Human Rights" is employed as a manipulative device (or tool) by the interviewees. This is essentially the crux of the study. The chief aim of the thesis is to present various ways the notion of "Human Rights" can be (and is) interpreted and utilised by the displaced Sudanese in the context of their own circumstances as exiles.
1997-01-01T00:00:00ZBajor, William J.This thesis examines how the displaced Sudanese in Egypt, Kenya, and the United Kingdom discuss the topic of "Human Rights". Whereas many studies on "Human Rights" are primarily concerned with the opinions of outsiders, an attempt is made here to provide an alternative perspective in that the focus of this dissertation is on how the displaced Sudanese, themselves, discuss "Human Rights" in view of their situation as exiles. The thesis begins by tracing the historical evolution of the 'Western' concept of "Human Rights" and investigating the historical relationship between Anthropology and "Human Rights". Attention is paid to the role of the doctrine of "cultural relativism" in the discipline of Anthropology. After briefly looking at Sudan's geographical and social makeup, I explain the difficulties I encountered as an independent scholar conducting research on "Human Rights" and Sudan. This is followed by descriptions of the fieldwork locations. What comes next is the heart and soul of the thesis. After giving brief descriptions of the interviewees, 1 analyse how the interviews were conducted and explain how the issue of "Politics" dominated practically every discussion with the interviewees. Next, excerpts from nineteen interviews are presented for the reader to get acquainted with the conversations between the Interviewees and myself. Finally, an examination is made of how "Human Rights" is employed as a manipulative device (or tool) by the interviewees. This is essentially the crux of the study. The chief aim of the thesis is to present various ways the notion of "Human Rights" can be (and is) interpreted and utilised by the displaced Sudanese in the context of their own circumstances as exiles.The implications of manioc cultivation in the culture and mythology of the Machiguenga of South Eastern PeruLewington, Annahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/153812019-04-01T09:30:59Z1986-01-01T00:00:00ZThe aim of this thesis to effect an introduction to the place of manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in the culture of the Machiguenga Indians of the Peruvian rain forest. The main substance of my work finds its focus in a myth, the narrative of which was recorded during fieldwork on location in the Urubamba region of south east Peru. My thesis will attempt to examine the role of manioc and the justification of its description as a 'sacred plant' the Machiguenga. The evidence I put forward to demonstrate the significance of manioc comes under the following headings: a) manioc cultivation and dietary uses b) manioc plant taxonomy c) the manioc myth itself, which I have transcribed and translated from my recordings. Whilst the anthropological structures of the myth are examined, no attempt will be made to deal in detail with the vocabulary and morphology of the Machiguenga language. While conceding that it is vital to show the connection between the material use of manioc and the belief structure surrounding it, material already collected would suggest a more ambitious piece of work than a Master of Philosophy degree would allow, and I hope in the future to undertake full-scale investigation into this largely untouched aspect of Machiguenga social and religious organization. The present work aims only at an introduction to the people and their use of manioc, and the presentation of the manioc myth.
1986-01-01T00:00:00ZLewington, AnnaThe aim of this thesis to effect an introduction to the place of manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in the culture of the Machiguenga Indians of the Peruvian rain forest. The main substance of my work finds its focus in a myth, the narrative of which was recorded during fieldwork on location in the Urubamba region of south east Peru. My thesis will attempt to examine the role of manioc and the justification of its description as a 'sacred plant' the Machiguenga. The evidence I put forward to demonstrate the significance of manioc comes under the following headings: a) manioc cultivation and dietary uses b) manioc plant taxonomy c) the manioc myth itself, which I have transcribed and translated from my recordings. Whilst the anthropological structures of the myth are examined, no attempt will be made to deal in detail with the vocabulary and morphology of the Machiguenga language. While conceding that it is vital to show the connection between the material use of manioc and the belief structure surrounding it, material already collected would suggest a more ambitious piece of work than a Master of Philosophy degree would allow, and I hope in the future to undertake full-scale investigation into this largely untouched aspect of Machiguenga social and religious organization. The present work aims only at an introduction to the people and their use of manioc, and the presentation of the manioc myth.Language in a dependent society : Belize, Central AmericaWelsh, Elizabethhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/153802019-04-01T09:31:30Z1988-01-01T00:00:00ZIn Belize the medium of instruction in schools is English, despite the fact that the pupils do not speak English as their first language. Some Spanish-speakers would like to see Spanish used as a medium of instruction in schools too. Other Spanish- speakers think this would lessen their chances in national and international socioeconomic and political circumstances where English is the dominant language. The evaluation of language use in schools is just one aspect of a multitude of attitudes Belizeans have about language in their lives. These language attitudes are an expression of Belizean responses to the socioeconomic dynamic in Belizean society. Their attitudes are determined by sociocultural, socioeconomic and political allegiances. There is some conflict between those whose stake is in the status quo in Belize, whereby it is economically dependent on its historic links with the United States, the Commonwealth, the United Kingdom and the European Economic Community, and those Spanish speakers, who have prospered from the production of sugar-cane and come to vie with the Creoles for socioeconomic predominance, who feel that their interests would be better served by developing economic and cultural links with Latin American countries. This more or less overt tension in Belizean society means that there is no recognition of an emergent Belizean identity which brings together Creole and Hispanic cultural manifestations and has Belizean Creole as its linguistic expression. The strengths of the languages involved lie in the economic base and potential of the respective speakers. Whatever the outcome of these forces Belizeans would benefit from positively acknowledging the linguistic diversity in their nation and fostering their achievements in two or more languages, as this linguistic flexibility could be one of their main resources in responding to the developments in their geopolitical and economic situation.
1988-01-01T00:00:00ZWelsh, ElizabethIn Belize the medium of instruction in schools is English, despite the fact that the pupils do not speak English as their first language. Some Spanish-speakers would like to see Spanish used as a medium of instruction in schools too. Other Spanish- speakers think this would lessen their chances in national and international socioeconomic and political circumstances where English is the dominant language. The evaluation of language use in schools is just one aspect of a multitude of attitudes Belizeans have about language in their lives. These language attitudes are an expression of Belizean responses to the socioeconomic dynamic in Belizean society. Their attitudes are determined by sociocultural, socioeconomic and political allegiances. There is some conflict between those whose stake is in the status quo in Belize, whereby it is economically dependent on its historic links with the United States, the Commonwealth, the United Kingdom and the European Economic Community, and those Spanish speakers, who have prospered from the production of sugar-cane and come to vie with the Creoles for socioeconomic predominance, who feel that their interests would be better served by developing economic and cultural links with Latin American countries. This more or less overt tension in Belizean society means that there is no recognition of an emergent Belizean identity which brings together Creole and Hispanic cultural manifestations and has Belizean Creole as its linguistic expression. The strengths of the languages involved lie in the economic base and potential of the respective speakers. Whatever the outcome of these forces Belizeans would benefit from positively acknowledging the linguistic diversity in their nation and fostering their achievements in two or more languages, as this linguistic flexibility could be one of their main resources in responding to the developments in their geopolitical and economic situation."Nganampalampa - definitely all ours" : the contestation and appropriation of Uluru (Ayers Rock) by tourists and aboriginesFleet, Kimhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/153782023-10-24T08:11:09Z1999-01-01T00:00:00ZThe thesis examines the response of Aborigines (Anangu) to the situation of mass tourism at Ulunu (Ayers Rock) in central Australia. When tourists visit Ulunu, the harsh environment brings them into a sudden, often unpleasant, awareness of their own bodies. This corporeal consciousness affects the interest they have in regard to those living there long term (Anangu, Park rangers, and workers in the tourism industry). Consequently, the questions tourists ask about Anangu focus on how they cope with life in this harsh area. To Anangu, though, Ulunu and the surrounding area is a political and ideological landscape. They wish to educate tourists about the meanings the land has for them, using stories from the Tjukurpa (Dreaming) to illustrate how Anangu see their place in the world: as rightful owners and custodians of Ulunu. Unfortunately, tourists have experienced a shift from the familiar, intellectual realm to a physical realm of senses and body processes, and their interest is not in Anangu ideology and politics, but in the maintenance of Anangu bodies. A tension occurs when Anangu force tourists to consider Aboriginal culture through their message of not climbing Ulunu, the intended activity for the majority of tourists. This message articulates the differences between Anangu and tourists, and in recent years it has become more strident, to the extent of altering Tjukurpa stories to illustrate it. Anangu engagement with tourism is used to promote political messages; but the success of this endeavour depends on the tourists' own experience of the landscape. Further, the thesis offers an ethnography and analysis of the lives and communities that constitute various categories of white workers in the area and demonstrates their attitudes both towards each other, and to Anangu and tourists.
1999-01-01T00:00:00ZFleet, KimThe thesis examines the response of Aborigines (Anangu) to the situation of mass tourism at Ulunu (Ayers Rock) in central Australia. When tourists visit Ulunu, the harsh environment brings them into a sudden, often unpleasant, awareness of their own bodies. This corporeal consciousness affects the interest they have in regard to those living there long term (Anangu, Park rangers, and workers in the tourism industry). Consequently, the questions tourists ask about Anangu focus on how they cope with life in this harsh area. To Anangu, though, Ulunu and the surrounding area is a political and ideological landscape. They wish to educate tourists about the meanings the land has for them, using stories from the Tjukurpa (Dreaming) to illustrate how Anangu see their place in the world: as rightful owners and custodians of Ulunu. Unfortunately, tourists have experienced a shift from the familiar, intellectual realm to a physical realm of senses and body processes, and their interest is not in Anangu ideology and politics, but in the maintenance of Anangu bodies. A tension occurs when Anangu force tourists to consider Aboriginal culture through their message of not climbing Ulunu, the intended activity for the majority of tourists. This message articulates the differences between Anangu and tourists, and in recent years it has become more strident, to the extent of altering Tjukurpa stories to illustrate it. Anangu engagement with tourism is used to promote political messages; but the success of this endeavour depends on the tourists' own experience of the landscape. Further, the thesis offers an ethnography and analysis of the lives and communities that constitute various categories of white workers in the area and demonstrates their attitudes both towards each other, and to Anangu and tourists.Cultured action theatre in selected regions of anglophone and francophone CameroonTanyi-Tang, Annehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/153772019-04-01T09:29:30Z1994-01-01T00:00:00ZThis study is primarily concerned with notions of identity and conceptions of development in Cameroonian village, city and national theatre performances, as well as audience responses to them. What I call 'Cultural Action Theatre' is different in many respects from Theatre for Development: the latter is dominated by theatre activists, is short-lived and involves enormous cost and organisation; the former is produced by members of a community, is long-lived and less costly. The messages in performances are analysed and given meanings by the audience, whose responses are determined by contemporary political events. These events also affect the nature of theatre performances. Performances suggest that Cameroonians are dissatisfied with the economic and political relationship between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon and between Cameroon and developed countries. The study reveals that Cultural Action Theatre is used by oppressed people (e.g. women) to convey messages to their superiors (men, chiefs and politicians), and that oppressed groups produce more theatre than privileged groups. Disadvantaged Anglophone theatre practitioners use a direct style to convey practical problems whereas Francophones use a subtle style to express predominantly philosophical issues. This theatre deals with issues of local, regional and national identity and also with political leadership and morality. The choice of a particular language in any given performance is also crucial in engendering different cultural and political identities. This study argues that to mobilise people for action, a play must appeal to their sense of identity and to portray the advantages that would arise from their action. Theatre practitioners at all levels in Cameroon are concerned with different causes of national underdevelopment and hence conceive of the notion and the practice of development from different angles. The main body of the thesis is divided into two parts. The introduction to the thesis briefly describes the geography of Cameroon, the historical influences on the domains of education, society, economy and politics, and on the Anglophone and Francophone zones of Cameroon, and it discusses terminologies and concepts and my methodology. Part one consists of two chapters. Chapter one describes village performances in selected regions in Anglophone and Francophone zones. Chapter two is concerned with city performances in the respective selected zones. Part two, chapter 3-6, concentrates on national performances. Chapter three describes political leaders and development in Anglophone and Francophone National performances. Chapter four focuses on women and their role in national performances. Chapter five examines cultural and political identities in national performances. Chapter six is concerned with morality, ethics and national sentiments in national performances. The conclusion summarises my findings.
1994-01-01T00:00:00ZTanyi-Tang, AnneThis study is primarily concerned with notions of identity and conceptions of development in Cameroonian village, city and national theatre performances, as well as audience responses to them. What I call 'Cultural Action Theatre' is different in many respects from Theatre for Development: the latter is dominated by theatre activists, is short-lived and involves enormous cost and organisation; the former is produced by members of a community, is long-lived and less costly. The messages in performances are analysed and given meanings by the audience, whose responses are determined by contemporary political events. These events also affect the nature of theatre performances. Performances suggest that Cameroonians are dissatisfied with the economic and political relationship between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon and between Cameroon and developed countries. The study reveals that Cultural Action Theatre is used by oppressed people (e.g. women) to convey messages to their superiors (men, chiefs and politicians), and that oppressed groups produce more theatre than privileged groups. Disadvantaged Anglophone theatre practitioners use a direct style to convey practical problems whereas Francophones use a subtle style to express predominantly philosophical issues. This theatre deals with issues of local, regional and national identity and also with political leadership and morality. The choice of a particular language in any given performance is also crucial in engendering different cultural and political identities. This study argues that to mobilise people for action, a play must appeal to their sense of identity and to portray the advantages that would arise from their action. Theatre practitioners at all levels in Cameroon are concerned with different causes of national underdevelopment and hence conceive of the notion and the practice of development from different angles. The main body of the thesis is divided into two parts. The introduction to the thesis briefly describes the geography of Cameroon, the historical influences on the domains of education, society, economy and politics, and on the Anglophone and Francophone zones of Cameroon, and it discusses terminologies and concepts and my methodology. Part one consists of two chapters. Chapter one describes village performances in selected regions in Anglophone and Francophone zones. Chapter two is concerned with city performances in the respective selected zones. Part two, chapter 3-6, concentrates on national performances. Chapter three describes political leaders and development in Anglophone and Francophone National performances. Chapter four focuses on women and their role in national performances. Chapter five examines cultural and political identities in national performances. Chapter six is concerned with morality, ethics and national sentiments in national performances. The conclusion summarises my findings.Social stratification among the Zaghawa Muslim community in the SudanMohamed-Salih, El Tigani Mustafahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/153752019-04-01T09:29:31Z1988-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is concerned with the social organization of the Zaghawa Muslim community in the Northern Darfur province of the Republic of the Sudan. The Zaghawa are internally divided into two distinct groups beri and mai. The former constitute the majority of the Zaghawa society whereas the latter are a minority group of hereditarly and occupationally specialized craftsmen (blacksmiths, hunters, potters, healers and diviners). Although the two groups claim to be adherents of Islam, the beri are of the belief that the mal are pagans and religiously Impure. To avoid being contaminated by the mal, the beri adopt endo-gamous marriages, residential segregation and restricted comnensality. The thesis critically examines the literature on caste and considers the divergent views on whether caste is confined to India or a universal phenomenon which can possibly be encountered in Africa as well. The author maintains that the narrow definition of the term caste as a unique phenomenon confined to India is inappropriate for there exist many societies outside India which share the structural and cultural features of the Indian caste system. Hence he suggests that the term caste should be broadly defined to embrace any society which displays the characteristic features of caste irrespective of its geographical location. Despite the Zaghawa being broadly divided into beri and mai, sociologically more Important Is their categorization into kire bor, miskin and mal. The thesis explains how the Zaghawa society represents a caste-like system and shows how both the marginal kire bor and miskin are able to achieve social mobility whereas It Is impossible for the mal to do so. The study also focuses on the role of the kinship solidarity and village membership in maintaining social security and community welfare, It also examines how the Zaghawa traditionally respond to drought and famine and explains why their traditional institutions of coping with famine failed to save them from the late famine disaster which occured in the African Sahel.
1988-01-01T00:00:00ZMohamed-Salih, El Tigani MustafaThis thesis is concerned with the social organization of the Zaghawa Muslim community in the Northern Darfur province of the Republic of the Sudan. The Zaghawa are internally divided into two distinct groups beri and mai. The former constitute the majority of the Zaghawa society whereas the latter are a minority group of hereditarly and occupationally specialized craftsmen (blacksmiths, hunters, potters, healers and diviners). Although the two groups claim to be adherents of Islam, the beri are of the belief that the mal are pagans and religiously Impure. To avoid being contaminated by the mal, the beri adopt endo-gamous marriages, residential segregation and restricted comnensality. The thesis critically examines the literature on caste and considers the divergent views on whether caste is confined to India or a universal phenomenon which can possibly be encountered in Africa as well. The author maintains that the narrow definition of the term caste as a unique phenomenon confined to India is inappropriate for there exist many societies outside India which share the structural and cultural features of the Indian caste system. Hence he suggests that the term caste should be broadly defined to embrace any society which displays the characteristic features of caste irrespective of its geographical location. Despite the Zaghawa being broadly divided into beri and mai, sociologically more Important Is their categorization into kire bor, miskin and mal. The thesis explains how the Zaghawa society represents a caste-like system and shows how both the marginal kire bor and miskin are able to achieve social mobility whereas It Is impossible for the mal to do so. The study also focuses on the role of the kinship solidarity and village membership in maintaining social security and community welfare, It also examines how the Zaghawa traditionally respond to drought and famine and explains why their traditional institutions of coping with famine failed to save them from the late famine disaster which occured in the African Sahel.Economic crisis and the relevance of matriliny and chiefship among the Asante of Pranum District, GhanaKwabiah, Baafour Kwaku Adomako-Attahhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/153742019-04-01T09:31:20Z1999-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the continued relevance of matriliny among the present-day Asante of Pranum District in Ghana. At the core of this investigation is Domeabra-Owerriman Traditional Area which is in a state of crisis caused by the decline in cocoa production and the superimposition, by government edict, of the World Bank's 'Structural Adjustment Programme'. An examination of household economic strategy in Domeabra-Owerriman reveals that, as in the traditional past, in the face of ecological and economic catastrophes Asante continue to invoke matrilineal notions. These days such notions are especially pertinent in respect of the organisation of overseas migration. The thesis reviews the organisation of the traditional chiefship institution, and examines its continued relevance to Asante. Engaging with the anthropological literature on matriliny, it argues that, in the present-day world, chiefship crucially supplies legitimacy and value to matriliny, and thus underpins it as an important institution for the articulation of Asante affairs. As a citizen of Domeabra-Owerriman myself, an overseas migrant in both Norway and Britain, and a recent contestant for a local chieftaincy, my own vivid impression and experiences supply much by way of the ethnography reported in this thesis.
1999-01-01T00:00:00ZKwabiah, Baafour Kwaku Adomako-AttahThis thesis explores the continued relevance of matriliny among the present-day Asante of Pranum District in Ghana. At the core of this investigation is Domeabra-Owerriman Traditional Area which is in a state of crisis caused by the decline in cocoa production and the superimposition, by government edict, of the World Bank's 'Structural Adjustment Programme'. An examination of household economic strategy in Domeabra-Owerriman reveals that, as in the traditional past, in the face of ecological and economic catastrophes Asante continue to invoke matrilineal notions. These days such notions are especially pertinent in respect of the organisation of overseas migration. The thesis reviews the organisation of the traditional chiefship institution, and examines its continued relevance to Asante. Engaging with the anthropological literature on matriliny, it argues that, in the present-day world, chiefship crucially supplies legitimacy and value to matriliny, and thus underpins it as an important institution for the articulation of Asante affairs. As a citizen of Domeabra-Owerriman myself, an overseas migrant in both Norway and Britain, and a recent contestant for a local chieftaincy, my own vivid impression and experiences supply much by way of the ethnography reported in this thesis.Development agencies and their clients : the case of the En Nahud smallholder agricultural project (ENSAP), SudanAdam, Abdel Raouf Mohamedhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/152602019-04-01T09:29:27Z1994-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is concerned with rural development in Ghubeish village communities in En Nahud district, Northern Kordofan, Sudan. The area currently experiences an intervention in its traditional rain-fed agriculture by an NGO and is supposedly an area where rural development is underway. The thesis has to make use of an 'eclectic approach' which, in my view, is theoretically grounded to provide a holistic account of the development process. The 'eclectic approach' is an amlagam of the micro- and macro-approaches to development. Traditional anthropological approaches to development are mostly predicated on the too narrow premises of micro-models (e.g. transactional, actor-oriented etc.), and this renders them ill-equipped to take any account of the macro-level processes (such as local government, agencies etc.), which come directly to bear on the local scene. This, plainly, does not fully grasp the totality of the development enterprise (micro and macro). Despite being viewed as polar opposites, both the micro- and macro-approaches are necessary for the study of rural development at the local level. Rather than detracting from theoretical strength, combining such models in an overall 'eclectic approach' adds to the vigour of the theoretical analysis. Ten villages were selected for the present study, with between 274 and 1957 inhabitants. The population is from the Hamar tribe, which has historically witnessed a long process of transformation from semi-pastoralism to sedentary agriculture, combining subsistence and cash crop production. The basis of agriculture is predominantly traditional, using simple implements in a savannah environment. The majority of the inhabitants are smallholder farmers cultivating less than thirty makhamas (1 makhamas = 1.79 acres), though a significant proportion are large landowners. In addition to household labour hired labour and sharaka (share- cropping) contribute to the overall structure of the farming system. Despite the fact that land remains plentiful, expansion of the area under cultivation was restricted by capital shortage (which gave rise to informal and exploitative credit systems), and the simplicity of the agricultural technique. The intention this thesis is to bring to the foreground the views and perceptions of the people in these villages who are affected by the development project and to compare them with those held by the agency itself. It is shown that some of the respective views square and others diverge, whilst closer communication works to bridge the misunderstanding and misplaced stereotyping held by both sides. The study also shows that the government authority tends to ignore the villagers in their remoteness despite its plans for community development. Evaluation of the project shows that over the limited period of three years (mid-term) of project implementation the agency has partly succeeded in its experiment with institutionalising a low-cost and sustainable credit/extension system appropriate to the needs of smallholder farmers. But, on balance, it had had a limited impact towards reaching its goal of raising, significantly, smallholders' income.
1994-01-01T00:00:00ZAdam, Abdel Raouf MohamedThis thesis is concerned with rural development in Ghubeish village communities in En Nahud district, Northern Kordofan, Sudan. The area currently experiences an intervention in its traditional rain-fed agriculture by an NGO and is supposedly an area where rural development is underway. The thesis has to make use of an 'eclectic approach' which, in my view, is theoretically grounded to provide a holistic account of the development process. The 'eclectic approach' is an amlagam of the micro- and macro-approaches to development. Traditional anthropological approaches to development are mostly predicated on the too narrow premises of micro-models (e.g. transactional, actor-oriented etc.), and this renders them ill-equipped to take any account of the macro-level processes (such as local government, agencies etc.), which come directly to bear on the local scene. This, plainly, does not fully grasp the totality of the development enterprise (micro and macro). Despite being viewed as polar opposites, both the micro- and macro-approaches are necessary for the study of rural development at the local level. Rather than detracting from theoretical strength, combining such models in an overall 'eclectic approach' adds to the vigour of the theoretical analysis. Ten villages were selected for the present study, with between 274 and 1957 inhabitants. The population is from the Hamar tribe, which has historically witnessed a long process of transformation from semi-pastoralism to sedentary agriculture, combining subsistence and cash crop production. The basis of agriculture is predominantly traditional, using simple implements in a savannah environment. The majority of the inhabitants are smallholder farmers cultivating less than thirty makhamas (1 makhamas = 1.79 acres), though a significant proportion are large landowners. In addition to household labour hired labour and sharaka (share- cropping) contribute to the overall structure of the farming system. Despite the fact that land remains plentiful, expansion of the area under cultivation was restricted by capital shortage (which gave rise to informal and exploitative credit systems), and the simplicity of the agricultural technique. The intention this thesis is to bring to the foreground the views and perceptions of the people in these villages who are affected by the development project and to compare them with those held by the agency itself. It is shown that some of the respective views square and others diverge, whilst closer communication works to bridge the misunderstanding and misplaced stereotyping held by both sides. The study also shows that the government authority tends to ignore the villagers in their remoteness despite its plans for community development. Evaluation of the project shows that over the limited period of three years (mid-term) of project implementation the agency has partly succeeded in its experiment with institutionalising a low-cost and sustainable credit/extension system appropriate to the needs of smallholder farmers. But, on balance, it had had a limited impact towards reaching its goal of raising, significantly, smallholders' income.Anthropology and development planning, with special reference to a large-scale agricultural project in SudanAdam, Abdel Raouf Mohamedhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/152572019-04-01T09:31:39Z1989-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is concerned with rural development in Nuba peasant communities of the Southern Kordofan region, Sudan. Peasants have always been considered by planners as scapegoats for the failure of state-designed rural development schemes in Third World societies. This plainly does not grasp the cause of such failure. The thesis argues against both the practice and theoretical foundations on which rural development planning is based. The author maintains that empirical investigation at the grassroots level is badly needed to fully grasp and explain the total situation of the indigenous communities and their forms of organisation. The author singles out one Nuba peasant society located at Habila, where rural development is currently underway; he examines the roots of the failure of the state-initiated Habila scheme to arouse the popular participation of the poor Nuba peasants. The Nuba are primarily subsistence farmers cultivating dura, cotton, sesame, tobacco and vegetables. The majority have professed Islam, though a few are still Pagans and Christians. The thesis aims to bring to the foreground some of the socio-economic and cultural factors which have direct bearing on rural development. Underpinning the theoretical analysis are cultural and strategic perspectives relating to social action. Failure of economists to provide a sufficient explanation for the poor response of the Nuba peasants to the cooperative schemes of Habila has stimulated such perspectives which, the author contends, are badly needed for examining development situations at the level of the local community. The author concludes that the dissolution of the traditional forms of cooperation as a result of the commercialisation of the economy is mainly responsible for the failure of the Habila cooperative schemes to attract local peasants. But, ironically the scheme itself seems to perpetuate the same problems which it aims to mitigate, included here are the trends of labour migration and the ideology of consumerism.
1989-01-01T00:00:00ZAdam, Abdel Raouf MohamedThis thesis is concerned with rural development in Nuba peasant communities of the Southern Kordofan region, Sudan. Peasants have always been considered by planners as scapegoats for the failure of state-designed rural development schemes in Third World societies. This plainly does not grasp the cause of such failure. The thesis argues against both the practice and theoretical foundations on which rural development planning is based. The author maintains that empirical investigation at the grassroots level is badly needed to fully grasp and explain the total situation of the indigenous communities and their forms of organisation. The author singles out one Nuba peasant society located at Habila, where rural development is currently underway; he examines the roots of the failure of the state-initiated Habila scheme to arouse the popular participation of the poor Nuba peasants. The Nuba are primarily subsistence farmers cultivating dura, cotton, sesame, tobacco and vegetables. The majority have professed Islam, though a few are still Pagans and Christians. The thesis aims to bring to the foreground some of the socio-economic and cultural factors which have direct bearing on rural development. Underpinning the theoretical analysis are cultural and strategic perspectives relating to social action. Failure of economists to provide a sufficient explanation for the poor response of the Nuba peasants to the cooperative schemes of Habila has stimulated such perspectives which, the author contends, are badly needed for examining development situations at the level of the local community. The author concludes that the dissolution of the traditional forms of cooperation as a result of the commercialisation of the economy is mainly responsible for the failure of the Habila cooperative schemes to attract local peasants. But, ironically the scheme itself seems to perpetuate the same problems which it aims to mitigate, included here are the trends of labour migration and the ideology of consumerism.The true, the good, and the beautiful : the dark side of humanist science ; a study in the anthropology of science and social historyFait, Stefanohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/149152019-04-01T09:30:49Z2004-01-01T00:00:00ZHow do we systematise our knowledge without undermining mores and beliefs that have thus far guided our conduct? How do we account for free will in a cosmos made of molecules and universal laws? Is a metaphysical rebellion against the absurdity of a universe devoid of ethical significance unavoidable? Is this rebellion inevitably leading to the organization of the world in exclusively human terms? These are the problems that have been tackled among others by Dostoevskij, Kafka, Dickens, and Camus, thinkers who framed questions of paramount importance without finding persuasive answers (Davison 1997; Dodd 1992; Lary 1973). These are the same problems that many bio-scientists have grappled with in the past and I analyze the solutions they have identified. This work of mine could be seen as a follow-up to the qualitative survey carried out by Kerr, Cunningham-Burley, and Amos in 1998 among British scientists and clinicians with a well-established reputation. That investigation looked into the way the latter distance themselves from the dark shadow of eugenics and revealed that die equation of old eugenics and new genetics is deemed irrational because; scientific knowledge has grown by leaps and bounds ever since o the socio-political circumstances are radically different as coercion is unthinkable and the final decision rests with the individual who is protected by the principle of informed choice; o the aims of eugenics simply cannot be technically met; o the new genetics involves therapeutic aims as opposed to eugenics that concentrated on the alteration of the human gene pool; o the application of science is not necessarily one of scientists' main concerns; My contention is that these objections are too facile and unpersuasive. I submit that there is an obvious connection between how the existential and humanistic side of science failed to prove humanitarian, namely benevolent, compassionate and ultimately useful - the good -, the effort by several academicians to ground ethics on scientific evidence - the true -, And our incapacity to confront abnormality - the beautiful. This connection is eugenics. Eugenics is the scientific response to modern existential angst and social predicaments and is here to stay.
2004-01-01T00:00:00ZFait, StefanoHow do we systematise our knowledge without undermining mores and beliefs that have thus far guided our conduct? How do we account for free will in a cosmos made of molecules and universal laws? Is a metaphysical rebellion against the absurdity of a universe devoid of ethical significance unavoidable? Is this rebellion inevitably leading to the organization of the world in exclusively human terms? These are the problems that have been tackled among others by Dostoevskij, Kafka, Dickens, and Camus, thinkers who framed questions of paramount importance without finding persuasive answers (Davison 1997; Dodd 1992; Lary 1973). These are the same problems that many bio-scientists have grappled with in the past and I analyze the solutions they have identified. This work of mine could be seen as a follow-up to the qualitative survey carried out by Kerr, Cunningham-Burley, and Amos in 1998 among British scientists and clinicians with a well-established reputation. That investigation looked into the way the latter distance themselves from the dark shadow of eugenics and revealed that die equation of old eugenics and new genetics is deemed irrational because; scientific knowledge has grown by leaps and bounds ever since o the socio-political circumstances are radically different as coercion is unthinkable and the final decision rests with the individual who is protected by the principle of informed choice; o the aims of eugenics simply cannot be technically met; o the new genetics involves therapeutic aims as opposed to eugenics that concentrated on the alteration of the human gene pool; o the application of science is not necessarily one of scientists' main concerns; My contention is that these objections are too facile and unpersuasive. I submit that there is an obvious connection between how the existential and humanistic side of science failed to prove humanitarian, namely benevolent, compassionate and ultimately useful - the good -, the effort by several academicians to ground ethics on scientific evidence - the true -, And our incapacity to confront abnormality - the beautiful. This connection is eugenics. Eugenics is the scientific response to modern existential angst and social predicaments and is here to stay."Re-designing the nation" : politics and Christianity in Papua New Guinea's national parliamentSantos da Costa, Priscilahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/145802023-11-14T16:41:19Z2018-06-28T00:00:00ZMy thesis addresses how Christianity can constitute itself as a creative force and a form of governance across different scales. I carried out 12 months of fieldwork between 2013 and 2015 in Papua New Guinea’s National Parliament (Port Moresby). My interlocutors were bureaucrats, liberal professionals and pastors who formed a group known as the Unity Team. The Unity Team, spearheaded by the Speaker of the 9th Parliament, Hon. Theodor Zurenuoc, were responsible for controversial initiatives, such as the destruction and dismantling of traditional carvings from Parliament in 2013, which they considered ungodly and evil, and the placement of a donated KJV Bible in the chamber of Parliament in 2015.
My interlocutors regard Christianity as central to eliciting modern subjects and institutions. They consider Christianity to be a universal form of discernment, contrasted to particularistic forms of knowing and relating which are thought to create corruption and low institutional performance. I show how the Unity Team regarded Christianity as more than a way of doing away with satanic forces and building a Christian self. They expected Christianity to be a frame of reference informing work ethics, infusing citizenship and, finally, productive of a public and national realm. By exploring Christianity ethnographically, I offer a contribution to Anthropological discussions concerning politics, bureaucracy, citizenship, and nation-making.
2018-06-28T00:00:00ZSantos da Costa, PriscilaMy thesis addresses how Christianity can constitute itself as a creative force and a form of governance across different scales. I carried out 12 months of fieldwork between 2013 and 2015 in Papua New Guinea’s National Parliament (Port Moresby). My interlocutors were bureaucrats, liberal professionals and pastors who formed a group known as the Unity Team. The Unity Team, spearheaded by the Speaker of the 9th Parliament, Hon. Theodor Zurenuoc, were responsible for controversial initiatives, such as the destruction and dismantling of traditional carvings from Parliament in 2013, which they considered ungodly and evil, and the placement of a donated KJV Bible in the chamber of Parliament in 2015.
My interlocutors regard Christianity as central to eliciting modern subjects and institutions. They consider Christianity to be a universal form of discernment, contrasted to particularistic forms of knowing and relating which are thought to create corruption and low institutional performance. I show how the Unity Team regarded Christianity as more than a way of doing away with satanic forces and building a Christian self. They expected Christianity to be a frame of reference informing work ethics, infusing citizenship and, finally, productive of a public and national realm. By exploring Christianity ethnographically, I offer a contribution to Anthropological discussions concerning politics, bureaucracy, citizenship, and nation-making.The Hardtowners : an ethnographic study focused on a group of long-term unemployed one-parent families living within a Dundee council estateRode, Paulinahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/143342019-04-01T09:29:37Z2004-01-01T00:00:00ZThis is an ethnographic description and investigation of life on a Scottish council estate. It is based on five unemployed one-parent life histories focusing on their experiences, knowledge and emotions in and around a local community centre. The study's expressed focal point is the Gentleman Robber community centre, within the hardtown community in the city of Dundee. The study touches on locally important representations and key issues such as: work, morality, boredom, kinship, spatiality and violence. At the tables in the community centre, the local narrative montage often focused on the enjoyment of violence or the negative marginal stigmatism faced, while, for example, collecting one's social benefits or attending the local doctor. It reflected a dichotomy of Us/Them relations linked to a local fragmentation of identity and issues of deservingness. I found that in a daily emphasis of their own exclusion the Hardtowners often voiced a feeling and embodiment of opposition through local story telling. It is a fragmented and stressful everyday life, with individual skill and network connections deciding individual status in the community. Links and networks last for as long as they are deemed useful and flexibility in trading, cooperation, networking and violence is one of the local guiding lights for success. The ethnographic narrative is described though a fragmented, contextually faithful discourse, with cinematic influences. This imparts a slice of daily experientialism found in the fragmented and stressful lives of the individuals born into and living on benefit in a Western European welfare society.
2004-01-01T00:00:00ZRode, PaulinaThis is an ethnographic description and investigation of life on a Scottish council estate. It is based on five unemployed one-parent life histories focusing on their experiences, knowledge and emotions in and around a local community centre. The study's expressed focal point is the Gentleman Robber community centre, within the hardtown community in the city of Dundee. The study touches on locally important representations and key issues such as: work, morality, boredom, kinship, spatiality and violence. At the tables in the community centre, the local narrative montage often focused on the enjoyment of violence or the negative marginal stigmatism faced, while, for example, collecting one's social benefits or attending the local doctor. It reflected a dichotomy of Us/Them relations linked to a local fragmentation of identity and issues of deservingness. I found that in a daily emphasis of their own exclusion the Hardtowners often voiced a feeling and embodiment of opposition through local story telling. It is a fragmented and stressful everyday life, with individual skill and network connections deciding individual status in the community. Links and networks last for as long as they are deemed useful and flexibility in trading, cooperation, networking and violence is one of the local guiding lights for success. The ethnographic narrative is described though a fragmented, contextually faithful discourse, with cinematic influences. This imparts a slice of daily experientialism found in the fragmented and stressful lives of the individuals born into and living on benefit in a Western European welfare society.Sexual discourse about elderly people in Japan and BritainOh, Kazumihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/142562019-04-01T09:31:22Z2005-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis attempts to pursue and envisage the concrete pathway relating elderly people's sexuality at a discourse level in a broader socio-political context in Japan and Britain as modernised industrial societies. Three key facets may greatly enrich not only academic discourse on elderly people's sexuality but the various meanings regarding being old in modernised industrial societies. (1) Change in sexual discourse about elderly people demonstrates human sexuality and so allows us to forge ties with scientific data, medicine and sexology. (2) At the same time, we can appreciate that at a superficial level, changes in discourse refer to most basic heterosexual, married and age-stratified gendered relationships. (3) Notwithstanding such change in discourse, involving the move from asexuality to sexuality, one particular discursive idea, namely the 'critical view' of elderly people's sexuality, has always existed as a background notion. We address the first and second points from the social constructionist view. On the first point, the elderly population are capable of initiating themselves the fresh thinking that reflects changes in discourses, with the soon-to-be-old middle aged as catalysts. However, with regard to the third point, considerations of the incomplete nature of the change in discourses are closely related to the question of the elderly's own unique biological position. Elderly people's own unique biological position is beyond social constructionists' reach. A look beyond the positions of biological essentialism and social constructionism may provide us with the opportunity to view elderly people's sexual and sensual fulfilment from a perspective that would otherwise be impossible. Such analyses are important in listening to noises of elderly people's sexuality within "an ensemble of" highly modernised and industrialised societies. We may dare to refer to these noises as the freedom of being marginal.
2005-01-01T00:00:00ZOh, KazumiThis thesis attempts to pursue and envisage the concrete pathway relating elderly people's sexuality at a discourse level in a broader socio-political context in Japan and Britain as modernised industrial societies. Three key facets may greatly enrich not only academic discourse on elderly people's sexuality but the various meanings regarding being old in modernised industrial societies. (1) Change in sexual discourse about elderly people demonstrates human sexuality and so allows us to forge ties with scientific data, medicine and sexology. (2) At the same time, we can appreciate that at a superficial level, changes in discourse refer to most basic heterosexual, married and age-stratified gendered relationships. (3) Notwithstanding such change in discourse, involving the move from asexuality to sexuality, one particular discursive idea, namely the 'critical view' of elderly people's sexuality, has always existed as a background notion. We address the first and second points from the social constructionist view. On the first point, the elderly population are capable of initiating themselves the fresh thinking that reflects changes in discourses, with the soon-to-be-old middle aged as catalysts. However, with regard to the third point, considerations of the incomplete nature of the change in discourses are closely related to the question of the elderly's own unique biological position. Elderly people's own unique biological position is beyond social constructionists' reach. A look beyond the positions of biological essentialism and social constructionism may provide us with the opportunity to view elderly people's sexual and sensual fulfilment from a perspective that would otherwise be impossible. Such analyses are important in listening to noises of elderly people's sexuality within "an ensemble of" highly modernised and industrialised societies. We may dare to refer to these noises as the freedom of being marginal.John Brown : freedom and imposture in the early twentieth-century trans-CaribbeanWardle, Huonhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/142512023-07-27T15:30:14Z2016-12-02T00:00:00Z2016-12-02T00:00:00ZWardle, HuonRemaking selves and remaking public space : combating sexual harassment in Cairo post 2011Fernandez, Sandrahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/141552018-07-24T11:19:43Z2018-06-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis focuses on the work of a social movement based in Cairo that dedicated itself to the addressing and reducing sexual harassment, or taḥarush in the streets. Based on a year and five months of fieldwork, this thesis elaborated upon the genesis of the movement, its ethos, and the methods it deployed to tackle taḥarush. It is argued that the movement deployed methods which encouraged members of Egyptian society to revisit and rework their ethical standpoints with reference to taḥarush, and as such public behaviour. In this way, members of Egyptian society were asked to become more aware of their roles within society itself. Firstly, such methods had to be tested by movement members themselves.
The movement became known for two main activities: raising awareness and patrols. Both methods serve as ways by which the movement reshaped both people and the public spaces they occupied. Spaces are defined by the people who pass through them, and by acting on a given space, people can change how it is perceived. The movement designated itself a safe space, encouraging members to ponder ideas from society with the goal of changing society ‘for the better’.
What my research revealed was that lack of consensus regarding definitions embedded in movement ethos contributed to conflict between members and discontinuity between ethos and its enactment. Government pressures required changes to the structure and internal functioning of the movement, and in addition to the initial ethical project regarding taḥarush, members found themselves learning to embody and perform roles associated with employed positions.
The turmoil experienced both within in and outside of the movement is put back into the context of Egypt post 2011, to tease out the sense of temporality embedded in their struggle to survive the political climate of the time.
2018-06-01T00:00:00ZFernandez, SandraThis thesis focuses on the work of a social movement based in Cairo that dedicated itself to the addressing and reducing sexual harassment, or taḥarush in the streets. Based on a year and five months of fieldwork, this thesis elaborated upon the genesis of the movement, its ethos, and the methods it deployed to tackle taḥarush. It is argued that the movement deployed methods which encouraged members of Egyptian society to revisit and rework their ethical standpoints with reference to taḥarush, and as such public behaviour. In this way, members of Egyptian society were asked to become more aware of their roles within society itself. Firstly, such methods had to be tested by movement members themselves.
The movement became known for two main activities: raising awareness and patrols. Both methods serve as ways by which the movement reshaped both people and the public spaces they occupied. Spaces are defined by the people who pass through them, and by acting on a given space, people can change how it is perceived. The movement designated itself a safe space, encouraging members to ponder ideas from society with the goal of changing society ‘for the better’.
What my research revealed was that lack of consensus regarding definitions embedded in movement ethos contributed to conflict between members and discontinuity between ethos and its enactment. Government pressures required changes to the structure and internal functioning of the movement, and in addition to the initial ethical project regarding taḥarush, members found themselves learning to embody and perform roles associated with employed positions.
The turmoil experienced both within in and outside of the movement is put back into the context of Egypt post 2011, to tease out the sense of temporality embedded in their struggle to survive the political climate of the time.The moral (im)possibilities of being an applied anthropologist in development : an exploration of the moral and ethical issues that arise in theory and practiceMacLullich, Christopherhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/139582019-04-01T09:30:17Z2004-01-01T00:00:00ZMy broadest aim in this thesis is to explore some of the central ethical concerns of social anthropologists vis-a-vis the phenomena of development. In particular, what I want to bring out and examine is the dynamics of the 'moral experience' and 'moral force' of anthropologists in this area. I go about this by considering the historical unfolding of the anthropological conceptual and evaluative apprehension of planned social and economic change. On this basis, I also consider the nature of the critiques and contributions that social anthropology has generated. I also make an attempt to review the major conceptual moral controversies and agendas that are intrinsic to development from an anthropological perspective. Whilst the concepts and values that emanate from social anthropology are multi-faceted and many stranded, I believe that the anthropological standpoint is both distinctive and potentially counter hegemonic. I look specifically at the moral resources that can be unearthed from the emerging field of 'development ethics' which is largely articulated in terms of the maxims that are fundamental to Western moral and political traditions. I attempt to set out the terrain of the ethical deliberation of anthropologists involved in development in terms of some of the moral difficulties of Western society. I argue that Western moral reasoning, as a result of deep disagreements about the sources of value human life and society, tends to rely upon procedural, instrumental and coercive ethical frameworks. On this basis, one of my assertions is that communitarian arguments, whilst also being needed as a healthy antidote to the excesses of liberal individualism, also constitute a reflection of the aspirations of people(s), many of whom are beleaguered by the alienation, atomism and instrumentalism of modern society. The communitarian perspective also underpins a political commitment to supporting those besieged indigenous communities that struggle to defend their integrity in the face of the aggressive intrusions of the market mentality. This may involve supporting the maintenance of 'traditional' versions of moral reasoning, well being, and sociality (such as indigenous life-worlds), collective rights in the face of the fragmentary and individuating neo-liberal development policies, and to support the 'construction of new associative networks such as 'new social movements' that represent the aspirations, and embody the values, of marginalised and disempowered social groups.
2004-01-01T00:00:00ZMacLullich, ChristopherMy broadest aim in this thesis is to explore some of the central ethical concerns of social anthropologists vis-a-vis the phenomena of development. In particular, what I want to bring out and examine is the dynamics of the 'moral experience' and 'moral force' of anthropologists in this area. I go about this by considering the historical unfolding of the anthropological conceptual and evaluative apprehension of planned social and economic change. On this basis, I also consider the nature of the critiques and contributions that social anthropology has generated. I also make an attempt to review the major conceptual moral controversies and agendas that are intrinsic to development from an anthropological perspective. Whilst the concepts and values that emanate from social anthropology are multi-faceted and many stranded, I believe that the anthropological standpoint is both distinctive and potentially counter hegemonic. I look specifically at the moral resources that can be unearthed from the emerging field of 'development ethics' which is largely articulated in terms of the maxims that are fundamental to Western moral and political traditions. I attempt to set out the terrain of the ethical deliberation of anthropologists involved in development in terms of some of the moral difficulties of Western society. I argue that Western moral reasoning, as a result of deep disagreements about the sources of value human life and society, tends to rely upon procedural, instrumental and coercive ethical frameworks. On this basis, one of my assertions is that communitarian arguments, whilst also being needed as a healthy antidote to the excesses of liberal individualism, also constitute a reflection of the aspirations of people(s), many of whom are beleaguered by the alienation, atomism and instrumentalism of modern society. The communitarian perspective also underpins a political commitment to supporting those besieged indigenous communities that struggle to defend their integrity in the face of the aggressive intrusions of the market mentality. This may involve supporting the maintenance of 'traditional' versions of moral reasoning, well being, and sociality (such as indigenous life-worlds), collective rights in the face of the fragmentary and individuating neo-liberal development policies, and to support the 'construction of new associative networks such as 'new social movements' that represent the aspirations, and embody the values, of marginalised and disempowered social groups.Introduction : testing freedomLino e Silva, MoisesWardle, Huonhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/136812023-07-24T14:30:33Z2016-12-02T00:00:00Z2016-12-02T00:00:00ZLino e Silva, MoisesWardle, HuonConstructing gender in contemporary anthropologyBoŝkoviḱ, Aleksandarhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/131832019-04-01T09:32:18Z1996-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the ways in which gender and contemporary anthropology interact, with the special emphasis on the areas frequently referred to as "poststructuralist" or "postmodern." More specifically, I look at one aspect which postmodern approaches and feminist theories have in common: questioning of the dominant narratives. This questioning then leads through a series of constructed realities (or hyperrealities) to the realization of the importance of the concept of difference(s) in all its aspects. The ethnographic examples are from the Republics of Slovenia (primarily concerning feminist groups and scholars) and Macedonia (the region of Prespa, in the southwestern part of the country). In both countries the fall of communism has created a sort of a power hiatus, filled with questions about identity, the future and ways to organize the newly emerging societies (since both countries became independent in 1991). In that regard, both countries are hyper real. After the Introduction, I outline the debates surrounding "postmodern" approaches in anthropology, different theoretical assumptions, as well as the area(s) where these approaches can inform anthropological research. I start with the overview of the working definitions of "postmodernism" and the attitudes towards it that characterize current anthropological theory, continuing with what I regard to be the most illustrative examples of it being misunderstood and misrepresented, and concluding with the meeting point of postmodern anthropology and the study of gender. In the following chapters I present the results of my field research in Macedonia and in Slovenia, concluding with the theoretical implications of contemporary anthropological approaches to the study of gender, as well as the reasons for presenting it as basically a social construct. In Conclusion, I point out at the fact that gender studies seem to be the only area where postmodernism and anthropology interact in the most positive way, primarily through the full exploration of the concept of difference(s).
1996-01-01T00:00:00ZBoŝkoviḱ, AleksandarThis thesis explores the ways in which gender and contemporary anthropology interact, with the special emphasis on the areas frequently referred to as "poststructuralist" or "postmodern." More specifically, I look at one aspect which postmodern approaches and feminist theories have in common: questioning of the dominant narratives. This questioning then leads through a series of constructed realities (or hyperrealities) to the realization of the importance of the concept of difference(s) in all its aspects. The ethnographic examples are from the Republics of Slovenia (primarily concerning feminist groups and scholars) and Macedonia (the region of Prespa, in the southwestern part of the country). In both countries the fall of communism has created a sort of a power hiatus, filled with questions about identity, the future and ways to organize the newly emerging societies (since both countries became independent in 1991). In that regard, both countries are hyper real. After the Introduction, I outline the debates surrounding "postmodern" approaches in anthropology, different theoretical assumptions, as well as the area(s) where these approaches can inform anthropological research. I start with the overview of the working definitions of "postmodernism" and the attitudes towards it that characterize current anthropological theory, continuing with what I regard to be the most illustrative examples of it being misunderstood and misrepresented, and concluding with the meeting point of postmodern anthropology and the study of gender. In the following chapters I present the results of my field research in Macedonia and in Slovenia, concluding with the theoretical implications of contemporary anthropological approaches to the study of gender, as well as the reasons for presenting it as basically a social construct. In Conclusion, I point out at the fact that gender studies seem to be the only area where postmodernism and anthropology interact in the most positive way, primarily through the full exploration of the concept of difference(s).Being German and being Paraguayan in Nueva Germania : arguing for “contextual epistemic permissibility” and “methodological complementarity”Kurzwelly, Jonatanhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/121802019-04-01T09:29:21Z2017-12-20T00:00:00ZThis thesis involves a collaborative study of emic articulations and quotidian ways of ‘being German’ and ‘being Paraguayan’ in Nueva Germania, a rural municipality in Paraguay. An argument is made that the social categories focused upon during this thesis, were evoked according to different contexts. While many claimed that Germanness or Paraguayanness were key categories, essentialistic characteristics that defined them and others as people of a certain kind, in other situations these social divisions were disregarded or even contradicted. This leads me to the theoretical conclusion that social categories, and epistemic frameworks more broadly, should not be understood as universally relevant or as universally applicable, and should not be treated as such. The thesis therefore proposes to assume ‘contextual epistemic permissibility’ as a key axiom for use within anthropology and in the wider social sciences.
The possible theoretical and methodological consequences of such an assumption are elaborated upon. Different theories of self, social action, and agency are debated in the course of this thesis: it is asked which might best analytically accommodate the assumption of contextual epistemic permissibility. Furthermore, in order to reflect the multiplicity of emic epistemic frameworks, the thesis proposes that a notion of ‘analytical and representative complementarity’ be introduced, rather than monistic theoretical models. Such complementarity is practised in the thesis through the use of different multiscalar analyses (for example, the use of different theories of nationalism), and through the simultaneous use of different forms of representation.
The above theoretical divagations are intertwined and related to the individual stories of twelve people from Nueva Germania, and are presented with both textual and photographic means. The stories were created through a collaborative process. Each project participant was free to decide upon the subject of their account, and therefore the resulting stories are able to cover a variety of different themes, at the same time introducing the reader to individual histories, struggles, opinions, plans, and critiques. Some elements of these accounts directly relate to the theoretical debates focused upon within the thesis while other elements of the individual stories are left to speak for themselves, and for the reader to make sense of independently. The photographs and texts, in their intertextual presentation, allow for an embodiment of the argument concerning representational complementarity.
2017-12-20T00:00:00ZKurzwelly, JonatanThis thesis involves a collaborative study of emic articulations and quotidian ways of ‘being German’ and ‘being Paraguayan’ in Nueva Germania, a rural municipality in Paraguay. An argument is made that the social categories focused upon during this thesis, were evoked according to different contexts. While many claimed that Germanness or Paraguayanness were key categories, essentialistic characteristics that defined them and others as people of a certain kind, in other situations these social divisions were disregarded or even contradicted. This leads me to the theoretical conclusion that social categories, and epistemic frameworks more broadly, should not be understood as universally relevant or as universally applicable, and should not be treated as such. The thesis therefore proposes to assume ‘contextual epistemic permissibility’ as a key axiom for use within anthropology and in the wider social sciences.
The possible theoretical and methodological consequences of such an assumption are elaborated upon. Different theories of self, social action, and agency are debated in the course of this thesis: it is asked which might best analytically accommodate the assumption of contextual epistemic permissibility. Furthermore, in order to reflect the multiplicity of emic epistemic frameworks, the thesis proposes that a notion of ‘analytical and representative complementarity’ be introduced, rather than monistic theoretical models. Such complementarity is practised in the thesis through the use of different multiscalar analyses (for example, the use of different theories of nationalism), and through the simultaneous use of different forms of representation.
The above theoretical divagations are intertwined and related to the individual stories of twelve people from Nueva Germania, and are presented with both textual and photographic means. The stories were created through a collaborative process. Each project participant was free to decide upon the subject of their account, and therefore the resulting stories are able to cover a variety of different themes, at the same time introducing the reader to individual histories, struggles, opinions, plans, and critiques. Some elements of these accounts directly relate to the theoretical debates focused upon within the thesis while other elements of the individual stories are left to speak for themselves, and for the reader to make sense of independently. The photographs and texts, in their intertextual presentation, allow for an embodiment of the argument concerning representational complementarity.Aasenîkon! Makushi travelogues from the borderlands of Southern GuyanaGrund, Lisa Katharinahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/121672019-04-01T09:31:12Z2017-12-08T00:00:00ZThis ethnographic account focuses on the conceptions and practices of movement, as narrated by the Makushi people who live along the triple frontier of southern Guyana. The journeys - individual experiences, in particular of women – depict visits to other Makushi communities, to their neighbours and cities in Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela. The travelogues disclose Makushi premises on knowledge and its acquisition: gender, age, temporality and alterity. Exploring these concepts in practice, the ethnography points out the value the Makushi attribute to their encounters with others, situations in which risk and unpredictability are creatively incorporated as part of their sociality.
2017-12-08T00:00:00ZGrund, Lisa KatharinaThis ethnographic account focuses on the conceptions and practices of movement, as narrated by the Makushi people who live along the triple frontier of southern Guyana. The journeys - individual experiences, in particular of women – depict visits to other Makushi communities, to their neighbours and cities in Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela. The travelogues disclose Makushi premises on knowledge and its acquisition: gender, age, temporality and alterity. Exploring these concepts in practice, the ethnography points out the value the Makushi attribute to their encounters with others, situations in which risk and unpredictability are creatively incorporated as part of their sociality.Living with Durham Cathedral : understanding the dynamic relationships between a community and their cathedralCalvert, Arran Jameshttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/120342019-04-01T09:32:10Z2017-06-29T00:00:00ZCathedrals today are no longer sites of just religious worship, they must be many things to many people such as tourist attractions, heritage centres, and meeting places. Today, Durham Cathedral in the north-east of England is home to almost 900 people engaged on site, of which almost 700 are volunteers. Add to that number over 700,000 visitors and about 1,700 religious services annually, and a complex image of life within Durham Cathedral begins to take shape. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork between August 2013 and September 2014, this thesis takes a phenomenological approach in exploring the dynamic relationships that exist between a 900-year-old building and those who regularly come into contact with that building. It will consider the complex negotiations that take place between the many parts of the community and the building in a constantly changing environment, and will focus on the role sound, light, time, and space play in the constant challenge of change and negotiation. Finally, it will consider how buildings are not only constructed but are also cultivated through being built and rebuilt, spaces negotiated and improvised, as well as filled with stories and memories.
The importance of this research is not just in observing and understanding the types of change and negotiation that occur between a building and those who inhabit it, but also in understanding the altering roles of religious buildings as they cope with the changing demands of running a site of both historical and continuing social, religious, and financial pressures, Durham Cathedral is a place that gives space to differing communities, allowing people to find in the building what they need from the building and as a result of this, Durham Cathedral is not a place in which life happens, it is a place with which life happens.
2017-06-29T00:00:00ZCalvert, Arran JamesCathedrals today are no longer sites of just religious worship, they must be many things to many people such as tourist attractions, heritage centres, and meeting places. Today, Durham Cathedral in the north-east of England is home to almost 900 people engaged on site, of which almost 700 are volunteers. Add to that number over 700,000 visitors and about 1,700 religious services annually, and a complex image of life within Durham Cathedral begins to take shape. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork between August 2013 and September 2014, this thesis takes a phenomenological approach in exploring the dynamic relationships that exist between a 900-year-old building and those who regularly come into contact with that building. It will consider the complex negotiations that take place between the many parts of the community and the building in a constantly changing environment, and will focus on the role sound, light, time, and space play in the constant challenge of change and negotiation. Finally, it will consider how buildings are not only constructed but are also cultivated through being built and rebuilt, spaces negotiated and improvised, as well as filled with stories and memories.
The importance of this research is not just in observing and understanding the types of change and negotiation that occur between a building and those who inhabit it, but also in understanding the altering roles of religious buildings as they cope with the changing demands of running a site of both historical and continuing social, religious, and financial pressures, Durham Cathedral is a place that gives space to differing communities, allowing people to find in the building what they need from the building and as a result of this, Durham Cathedral is not a place in which life happens, it is a place with which life happens.Stories of the invisible mine : ethnographic account of stakeholder relations at the Frieda River Project, Papua New GuineaSkrzypek, Emilia Ehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/119712019-10-17T16:00:28Z2015-08-01T00:00:00ZLocated amid tropical rainforest, in an upper tributary of the Sepik River, the Frieda River area is home to one of the biggest undeveloped gold and copper deposits in the Pacific. Exploration of Frieda’s rich deposits has been ongoing since it began in 1969, bringing together unlikely partners in a process of preparing for a large-scale resource extraction project. This thesis offers an ethnographic account of stakeholder relations as they were unfolding at Frieda over forty years after the first company arrived on the banks of the River. It presents the key stakeholders of the Frieda River Project as outcomes of relations which produced them, emergent from an interplay between prescribed roles and expectations of responsibilities, and on the ground activities of forming and negotiating social relations. Through an ethnographic study of the Payamo it describes a process through which the Frieda River Project’s local stakeholders mobilized a range of complex and contested relations to turn Frieda’s rich deposits into development, and to make the mine at Frieda happen. This study provides an ethnographic insight into complex and contested processes of planning for a resource extraction project as they were actually taking place. It proposes an analytical framework of looking at a mine as a social relation and argues that although it might not yet have the appearance which would make it visible to the company and the government, from the perspective of its indigenous stakeholders the Frieda River Mine is already happening, but it has not yet revealed itself.
2015-08-01T00:00:00ZSkrzypek, Emilia ELocated amid tropical rainforest, in an upper tributary of the Sepik River, the Frieda River area is home to one of the biggest undeveloped gold and copper deposits in the Pacific. Exploration of Frieda’s rich deposits has been ongoing since it began in 1969, bringing together unlikely partners in a process of preparing for a large-scale resource extraction project. This thesis offers an ethnographic account of stakeholder relations as they were unfolding at Frieda over forty years after the first company arrived on the banks of the River. It presents the key stakeholders of the Frieda River Project as outcomes of relations which produced them, emergent from an interplay between prescribed roles and expectations of responsibilities, and on the ground activities of forming and negotiating social relations. Through an ethnographic study of the Payamo it describes a process through which the Frieda River Project’s local stakeholders mobilized a range of complex and contested relations to turn Frieda’s rich deposits into development, and to make the mine at Frieda happen. This study provides an ethnographic insight into complex and contested processes of planning for a resource extraction project as they were actually taking place. It proposes an analytical framework of looking at a mine as a social relation and argues that although it might not yet have the appearance which would make it visible to the company and the government, from the perspective of its indigenous stakeholders the Frieda River Mine is already happening, but it has not yet revealed itself.Secretly familiar : public secrets of a post traumatic diasporaShafafi, Pardishttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/118302017-12-05T09:58:37Z2015-05-01T00:00:00ZIn
1979,
the
socio-political
landscape
of
Iran
was
transformed
beyond
recognition.
After
years
of
conflict
between
the
Shah
and
a
myriad
of
political
opposition
groups,
it
seemed
that
the
people
had
indeed
triumphed
over
an
authoritarian
monarch.
As
is
now
widely
known,
their
short
lived
victory
transformed
into
a
systematic
programme
of
terror
that
turned
back
on
and
attacked
those
that
the
Islamic
Republic
deemed
contrary
to
its
values.
The
‘bloody
decade’
of
the
1980s
saw
thousands
of
executions
and
disappearances
under
the
cloak
of
the
war
with
neighbouring
Iraq.
The
records
of
these
massacres
are
still
largely
unreliable
and/or
incomplete.
The
programme
of
terror
in
question,
that
ensued
and
persists
up
to
the
present
day,
has
instigated
a
sprawling
transnational
Diaspora
with
a
familiar
but
rarely
divulged
public
secret.
My
doctoral
thesis
comprises
two
main
parts
in
relation
to
these
events.
They
are
connected
by
the
running
theme
of
alternative
narratives
of
past
violence,
and
a
post-traumatic
political
activism.
This
is
an
intimate
ethnography
that
examines
global
processes
(revolution,
Diaspora,
transnational
activism)
from
the
vantage
point
of
local
and
particular
histories
of
Lur,
former
Fadaiyan
guerilla
fighters
in
Oslo.
In
the
second
part
of
this
work,
these
histories
are
located
within
the
collective
movement
of
the
Iran
Tribunal,
a
literal
attempt
to
make
secrets
public
and
to
bring
together
subjective
experiences
of
violence
into
a
truth-‐telling
process.
Opening
up
a
new
space
for
critical
reflection,
this
study
proposes
an
alternative
lens
of
analysis
of
tumultuous
historical
processes.
With
regards
to
their
actors,
efforts
are
made
to
better
understand
how
lives
and
narratives
are
ordered
around
the
characteristic
disorder
of
violence,
fear
and
Diaspora
itself,
and
how
subjective
traumas
manifest
into
collective,
and
in
this
case
transnational,
movements.
My
ethnography
of
disordered
and
interrupted
lives
works
to
inform
studies
of
such
critical
contemporary
realities
as
well
as
to
ethnographically
introduce
the
Iranian
Diasporas’
public
secret
of
violence
for
wider
anthropological
enquiry,
and
to
contribute
towards
its
critical
analysis.
2015-05-01T00:00:00ZShafafi, PardisIn
1979,
the
socio-political
landscape
of
Iran
was
transformed
beyond
recognition.
After
years
of
conflict
between
the
Shah
and
a
myriad
of
political
opposition
groups,
it
seemed
that
the
people
had
indeed
triumphed
over
an
authoritarian
monarch.
As
is
now
widely
known,
their
short
lived
victory
transformed
into
a
systematic
programme
of
terror
that
turned
back
on
and
attacked
those
that
the
Islamic
Republic
deemed
contrary
to
its
values.
The
‘bloody
decade’
of
the
1980s
saw
thousands
of
executions
and
disappearances
under
the
cloak
of
the
war
with
neighbouring
Iraq.
The
records
of
these
massacres
are
still
largely
unreliable
and/or
incomplete.
The
programme
of
terror
in
question,
that
ensued
and
persists
up
to
the
present
day,
has
instigated
a
sprawling
transnational
Diaspora
with
a
familiar
but
rarely
divulged
public
secret.
My
doctoral
thesis
comprises
two
main
parts
in
relation
to
these
events.
They
are
connected
by
the
running
theme
of
alternative
narratives
of
past
violence,
and
a
post-traumatic
political
activism.
This
is
an
intimate
ethnography
that
examines
global
processes
(revolution,
Diaspora,
transnational
activism)
from
the
vantage
point
of
local
and
particular
histories
of
Lur,
former
Fadaiyan
guerilla
fighters
in
Oslo.
In
the
second
part
of
this
work,
these
histories
are
located
within
the
collective
movement
of
the
Iran
Tribunal,
a
literal
attempt
to
make
secrets
public
and
to
bring
together
subjective
experiences
of
violence
into
a
truth-‐telling
process.
Opening
up
a
new
space
for
critical
reflection,
this
study
proposes
an
alternative
lens
of
analysis
of
tumultuous
historical
processes.
With
regards
to
their
actors,
efforts
are
made
to
better
understand
how
lives
and
narratives
are
ordered
around
the
characteristic
disorder
of
violence,
fear
and
Diaspora
itself,
and
how
subjective
traumas
manifest
into
collective,
and
in
this
case
transnational,
movements.
My
ethnography
of
disordered
and
interrupted
lives
works
to
inform
studies
of
such
critical
contemporary
realities
as
well
as
to
ethnographically
introduce
the
Iranian
Diasporas’
public
secret
of
violence
for
wider
anthropological
enquiry,
and
to
contribute
towards
its
critical
analysis.Voice, History and Vertigo : Doing justice to the dead through imaginative conversationRapport, Nigel Julianhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/115992023-04-19T00:38:06Z2014-09-01T00:00:00Z2014-09-01T00:00:00ZRapport, Nigel JulianHistory, kinship and comunidad : learning to live together amongst Amahuaca people on the Inuya River in the Peruvian AmazonHewlett, Christopher Erikhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/113732019-04-01T09:29:12Z2014-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis examines the processes through which Amahuaca people began living in
Native Communities where they have legal titles to land, and are organized through the
‘corporate’ body of elected officials mandated by Peruvian law. The thesis focuses on the
period beginning in 1953 when the Summer Institute of Linguistics established the first
mission among Amahuaca people at the headwaters of the Inuya River in Eastern Peru.
This initiated a period of continuous contact between Amahuaca people and wider
Peruvian society. By taking a historical approach to understanding contemporary life
among Amahuaca people, the thesis engages with the problem of how they have come to
understand their past and how this is expressed today. The primary narrative is that
through their engagement with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Amahuaca people
have learned to live together. This notion of living together stands in sharp contrast to the
ways they often appear in the literature, which focuses on the lack of large villages and
any overarching social and political organization. Through an analysis of the
transformations Amahuaca people have undergone as a result of their decision to
participate in the SIL’s project, the thesis challenges this notion of lack and sets out an
alternate way of perceiving of Amahuaca sociality. The analysis begins with a series of
collective ceremonies in the 1960s, which were the only moments when Amahuaca
people were said to coordinate activities at a level beyond the extended family. Taking
this as an entry point, the thesis tracks the movement of a specific group of families
through time and space to explore the types of relationships they were engaged in during
this period of massive change. The overall aim is to locate continuities in the ways
Amahuaca people relate with one another and the wider world to better understand how
processes of transformation might be understood as the outcome of particular
relationships people made over the past half-century. Today, the same families who lived
in the first mission are spread out from the headwaters of the Inuya and Mapuya Rivers to
the provincial capital of Atalaya. The overarching narrative of becoming civilized is
given geographic significance based on this movement from the headwaters to the larger
rivers and towns; however, most of these families reside in one of two Amahuaca Native
Communities (Comunidades Nativas) located near the midpoint between these two poles.
One of the major themes of the thesis is to understand how people negotiate living
together in a Native Community as a formulation of becoming other.
Transformation, Native Community, Peruvian Amazonia, Government, History,
Amahuaca, Sociality, Missionization
2014-01-01T00:00:00ZHewlett, Christopher ErikThis thesis examines the processes through which Amahuaca people began living in
Native Communities where they have legal titles to land, and are organized through the
‘corporate’ body of elected officials mandated by Peruvian law. The thesis focuses on the
period beginning in 1953 when the Summer Institute of Linguistics established the first
mission among Amahuaca people at the headwaters of the Inuya River in Eastern Peru.
This initiated a period of continuous contact between Amahuaca people and wider
Peruvian society. By taking a historical approach to understanding contemporary life
among Amahuaca people, the thesis engages with the problem of how they have come to
understand their past and how this is expressed today. The primary narrative is that
through their engagement with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Amahuaca people
have learned to live together. This notion of living together stands in sharp contrast to the
ways they often appear in the literature, which focuses on the lack of large villages and
any overarching social and political organization. Through an analysis of the
transformations Amahuaca people have undergone as a result of their decision to
participate in the SIL’s project, the thesis challenges this notion of lack and sets out an
alternate way of perceiving of Amahuaca sociality. The analysis begins with a series of
collective ceremonies in the 1960s, which were the only moments when Amahuaca
people were said to coordinate activities at a level beyond the extended family. Taking
this as an entry point, the thesis tracks the movement of a specific group of families
through time and space to explore the types of relationships they were engaged in during
this period of massive change. The overall aim is to locate continuities in the ways
Amahuaca people relate with one another and the wider world to better understand how
processes of transformation might be understood as the outcome of particular
relationships people made over the past half-century. Today, the same families who lived
in the first mission are spread out from the headwaters of the Inuya and Mapuya Rivers to
the provincial capital of Atalaya. The overarching narrative of becoming civilized is
given geographic significance based on this movement from the headwaters to the larger
rivers and towns; however, most of these families reside in one of two Amahuaca Native
Communities (Comunidades Nativas) located near the midpoint between these two poles.
One of the major themes of the thesis is to understand how people negotiate living
together in a Native Community as a formulation of becoming other.
Transformation, Native Community, Peruvian Amazonia, Government, History,
Amahuaca, Sociality, MissionizationBlok laif : an ethnography of a Mosbi settlementHukula, Fiona Sonia Karejohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/113672023-05-29T14:54:34Z2015-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is about urban sociality in the context of an urban settlement in
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. I explore issues of urban life through
everyday stories of settlers who reside in a settlement (also known as a blok) at
Nine Mile, Port Moresby. I present settlers’ ideas of work and money through
their income generating efforts as well as their perception about giving. This
thesis explores settlement notions of the forms that relatedness takes through
everyday interactions of eating together, sharing and thinking of one another.
These actions in turn inform ideas of personhood and gender. I use blok ideas
to rethink assumptions about the meaning of land and place in an urban
setting. Furthermore I seek to use blok understandings of kinship,
personhood and gender to portray an urban sociality that is entwined in
relations.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZHukula, Fiona Sonia KarejoThis thesis is about urban sociality in the context of an urban settlement in
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. I explore issues of urban life through
everyday stories of settlers who reside in a settlement (also known as a blok) at
Nine Mile, Port Moresby. I present settlers’ ideas of work and money through
their income generating efforts as well as their perception about giving. This
thesis explores settlement notions of the forms that relatedness takes through
everyday interactions of eating together, sharing and thinking of one another.
These actions in turn inform ideas of personhood and gender. I use blok ideas
to rethink assumptions about the meaning of land and place in an urban
setting. Furthermore I seek to use blok understandings of kinship,
personhood and gender to portray an urban sociality that is entwined in
relations.Guyana and its El Dorados : forest resources and the REDD+ initiative from the perspective of Wakokoa and IsseruruObermuller, LauraJanhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/113642019-02-21T16:54:46Z2016-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the likely outcome of implementing REDD+ initiative in two
Amerindian villages in Guyana.
The dissertation is based on eighteen months fieldwork in Wakokoa and Isseruru villages.
The aim is to understand how they conceptualise their landscape amidst global pressure to
reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
An ethnographic perspective is provided on the villagers’ perception of their land use
practices and inter/intra group relationships. Specifically, I highlight the socio-economic
transformations of the villages; showing how mining has come to replace traditional
farming as their main source of income and the extent to which this contributes to their
‘development’. In Isseruru, I discuss how women’s access to the mines via kinship networks
has allowed them to assert their autonomy in both social and economic spheres and this
serves as an avenue for a transformation of traditional gender ideals. I suggest that forging
ties with spiritual forces in the landscape continues to play a significant role in settling land
disputes and regularising land use practices. I argue that rapid changes in Isseruru are
somewhat in contrast to the situation in Wakokoa which does not have mines on its titled
land but is involved in selective logging.
Local perceptions and practice are in a number of ways at odds with international plans to
transform forest use towards carbon neutrality and, in their current form, do not fit well
under the Guyana/Norway payment for ecosystems service agreement. However, I argue
that when this agreement became part of the nation-state development agenda it failed to
consider the actual importance of the landscape to forest-dependent communities.
By documenting actual forest-use in the villages and its relation to local cultural ideas, the
dissertation contributes to anthropological understandings of Guyanese Amerindians and
their land use practices vis-à-vis the expectation of REDD+ in Guyana.
2016-01-01T00:00:00ZObermuller, LauraJanThis thesis explores the likely outcome of implementing REDD+ initiative in two
Amerindian villages in Guyana.
The dissertation is based on eighteen months fieldwork in Wakokoa and Isseruru villages.
The aim is to understand how they conceptualise their landscape amidst global pressure to
reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
An ethnographic perspective is provided on the villagers’ perception of their land use
practices and inter/intra group relationships. Specifically, I highlight the socio-economic
transformations of the villages; showing how mining has come to replace traditional
farming as their main source of income and the extent to which this contributes to their
‘development’. In Isseruru, I discuss how women’s access to the mines via kinship networks
has allowed them to assert their autonomy in both social and economic spheres and this
serves as an avenue for a transformation of traditional gender ideals. I suggest that forging
ties with spiritual forces in the landscape continues to play a significant role in settling land
disputes and regularising land use practices. I argue that rapid changes in Isseruru are
somewhat in contrast to the situation in Wakokoa which does not have mines on its titled
land but is involved in selective logging.
Local perceptions and practice are in a number of ways at odds with international plans to
transform forest use towards carbon neutrality and, in their current form, do not fit well
under the Guyana/Norway payment for ecosystems service agreement. However, I argue
that when this agreement became part of the nation-state development agenda it failed to
consider the actual importance of the landscape to forest-dependent communities.
By documenting actual forest-use in the villages and its relation to local cultural ideas, the
dissertation contributes to anthropological understandings of Guyanese Amerindians and
their land use practices vis-à-vis the expectation of REDD+ in Guyana."Others before self" : Tibetan pedagogy and childrearing in a Tibetan children's village in the Indian HimalayaByłów-Antkowiak, Katarzynahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/113522019-04-01T09:28:48Z2017-01-01T00:00:00ZThis anthropological study examines ontogeny of ideas about self and others and approaches
human capacity for intersubjectivity as emergent in the course of life, by looking at how it is shaped
through mediation of the world by others and by processes at the group level. The empirical focus
is the ecology of concepts used by Tibetan children and adults in their daily life in a Tibetan
residential school in India, where people’s conduct and children’s upbringing and schooling are
informed by the Tibetan and Buddhist models and theories of self, mind, learning, causation and
history. The aim of this study is to identify - through a close ethnographic description and analysis
- the core aspects of learning as conceptualized and lived experience within contemporary Tibetan
Buddhist education system, derived from one of the oldest wisdom traditions in the world and
crystallizing within a modern nation-state Asia. Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV) was one of the
first Tibetan school networks aiming to provide formal lay education for children that sprang up
in exile following the fourteenth Dalai Lama’s flight to India in 1959.
Chapter 1 outlines the theoretical and methodological aspects of the study and sets forth
the research agenda that shaped the study design and kinds of engagement that were possible with
the study participants and the field. A short description of the geographical and climate conditions
in the field site is complemented by a snapshot of the social topography of the direct
neighbourhood of the school, where fieldwork was conducted over 11 months (February –
December) in 2013 and 3 months (June – September) in 2014. A brief review of debates and
sources from different bodies of anthropological literature bearing on the ethnographic material
has been added to clarify the orientation of the analysis and the research findings.
Chapter 2 explores the phenomenon of Tibetan lay education in exile and the concept of
education that developed as a result of a shift from monastic centres of learning towards
contemporary Tibetan lay schools in India. Through an ethnographic exploration of the theoretical
model of learning and pedagogical devices such as Tibetan debate, the chapter shows the mind as
the locus of schooling practices. It also demonstrates how, through daily ritual practices and debate,
this becomes a lived experience in a contemporary Tibetan school in the Indian Himalaya. The
chapter discusses ethnographic categories of mind, mind stream and mental karmic imprints, based
on interviews focusing on the Tibetan policy document detailing education strategy and goals.
These are shown to be informed by Tibetan Buddhist theory of learning and an understanding of
the inner subjective experience as the source of knowing. To contextualize the understanding of
mind in a contemporary Tibetan school in India, the chapter provides an ethnographic description
and analysis of the Tibetan dialectical debate (riglam) classes in TCV. Riglam is an ancient debating
tradition developed in India and preserved and further developed in Tibet and Tibetan monasteries
and now also in schools in exile.
Chapter 3 is an exploration of the ethnographic category of ‘history’ in the school. ‘History’
is shown to emerge out of the continuum of time – the un-tensed present. Drawing on the notion
of the mind imprints, patterning and habituation, and the imagery of the seed, coming ‘alive’ and
bearing fruit in the right circumstances, the chapter describes how the making of ‘history’ is
inscribed in the bodies of TCV inhabitants through daily bodily practices - bodily discipline, or
conduct (chöpa).
Chapter 4 focuses on TCV as a place and on the embeddedness of TCV within other
places. Through the discussion of the use of space and space-enabled operations, such as e.g.
spatio-temporally co-located sport games, the chapter outlines conceptualisation of a TCV-place
as expressed through the idioms of ‘floating’ and ‘going out of bounds’. This also leads to a
discussion of transgressions involving the use of electronic devices, tattoos and hairstyles, leaving
school, and the discourse and practices around the concept of ‘pure Tibetans’. The ethnographic
material highlighting an ontogenesis of space opens the way to discuss the embodied practice of
interdependence among TCV inhabitants, the practice that challenges the usefulness of analytical
categories of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ for an anthropological analysis of the experience of growing up
and living in TCV.
Chapters 5 and 6 look closely at the idea of others being essential in the ontogenesis of
beings. Chapter 5 is based on examples of teasing and games that involve directing attention of
infants and children to other people, and bringing other people’s ‘gaze’ (seeing you) to bear on the
decisions made for self. In this way it draws an outline of a particular kind of pedagogic effort
directed at infants and toddlers, and traces this pedagogy in other, later stages of the schooling
experience in TCV.
Chapter 6 focuses specifically on grammatical constructions that seemed to be salient in
the interactions between TCV inhabitants (adults and children). These included: 1) addresseebound
verb use, and, specifically, I-for-you inversion in questions; 2) the use of honorific forms
for others (multiplicity and gradation of terms) and its proscription for self-referential statements;
3) evidentiality markers denoting direct or indirect experience and the salience of personal
connection to the subject/object/action. Such ethnographic exploration of the perspective
inversion in everyday language use and everyday interactions leads to the review of some tacit
assumptions about the ‘subject’ in subjectivity and intersubjectivity used as heuristic devices. The
chapter also explores the utility, feasibility and implications of including the dialogical dimension
of being in the anthropological inquiry.
The conclusion of the thesis focuses on the question of intersubjectivity not as given, but
as ‘teased out’ and formed through practices involving both the constitution of self and the
simultaneous and inevitable constitution of others. It also posits the necessity of ethnographic
exploration of different practices that might be involved in bringing forth intersubjectivity, and
questions about the resulting ‘intersubjectivities’. Discussion of different aspects of the experience
of living and growing up in a TCV campus developed in the previous chapters, i.e. the theory of
learning and understanding of “mind”, inner subjective experience and karmic imprints; discipline
and temporal frameworks predicated on the ideas of karmic causation; dependent arising; training
of awareness, attention and ethical judgement and the ideas of self, leads to a particular reading of
the TCV slogan “Others Before Self”. The analysis, which starts with an exploration of the ideology
of education expressed through a policy document building upon particular Buddhist premises, is
thus brought full circle, with lived Buddhist experience animating the ubiquitous TCV formula for
a human being.
2017-01-01T00:00:00ZByłów-Antkowiak, KatarzynaThis anthropological study examines ontogeny of ideas about self and others and approaches
human capacity for intersubjectivity as emergent in the course of life, by looking at how it is shaped
through mediation of the world by others and by processes at the group level. The empirical focus
is the ecology of concepts used by Tibetan children and adults in their daily life in a Tibetan
residential school in India, where people’s conduct and children’s upbringing and schooling are
informed by the Tibetan and Buddhist models and theories of self, mind, learning, causation and
history. The aim of this study is to identify - through a close ethnographic description and analysis
- the core aspects of learning as conceptualized and lived experience within contemporary Tibetan
Buddhist education system, derived from one of the oldest wisdom traditions in the world and
crystallizing within a modern nation-state Asia. Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV) was one of the
first Tibetan school networks aiming to provide formal lay education for children that sprang up
in exile following the fourteenth Dalai Lama’s flight to India in 1959.
Chapter 1 outlines the theoretical and methodological aspects of the study and sets forth
the research agenda that shaped the study design and kinds of engagement that were possible with
the study participants and the field. A short description of the geographical and climate conditions
in the field site is complemented by a snapshot of the social topography of the direct
neighbourhood of the school, where fieldwork was conducted over 11 months (February –
December) in 2013 and 3 months (June – September) in 2014. A brief review of debates and
sources from different bodies of anthropological literature bearing on the ethnographic material
has been added to clarify the orientation of the analysis and the research findings.
Chapter 2 explores the phenomenon of Tibetan lay education in exile and the concept of
education that developed as a result of a shift from monastic centres of learning towards
contemporary Tibetan lay schools in India. Through an ethnographic exploration of the theoretical
model of learning and pedagogical devices such as Tibetan debate, the chapter shows the mind as
the locus of schooling practices. It also demonstrates how, through daily ritual practices and debate,
this becomes a lived experience in a contemporary Tibetan school in the Indian Himalaya. The
chapter discusses ethnographic categories of mind, mind stream and mental karmic imprints, based
on interviews focusing on the Tibetan policy document detailing education strategy and goals.
These are shown to be informed by Tibetan Buddhist theory of learning and an understanding of
the inner subjective experience as the source of knowing. To contextualize the understanding of
mind in a contemporary Tibetan school in India, the chapter provides an ethnographic description
and analysis of the Tibetan dialectical debate (riglam) classes in TCV. Riglam is an ancient debating
tradition developed in India and preserved and further developed in Tibet and Tibetan monasteries
and now also in schools in exile.
Chapter 3 is an exploration of the ethnographic category of ‘history’ in the school. ‘History’
is shown to emerge out of the continuum of time – the un-tensed present. Drawing on the notion
of the mind imprints, patterning and habituation, and the imagery of the seed, coming ‘alive’ and
bearing fruit in the right circumstances, the chapter describes how the making of ‘history’ is
inscribed in the bodies of TCV inhabitants through daily bodily practices - bodily discipline, or
conduct (chöpa).
Chapter 4 focuses on TCV as a place and on the embeddedness of TCV within other
places. Through the discussion of the use of space and space-enabled operations, such as e.g.
spatio-temporally co-located sport games, the chapter outlines conceptualisation of a TCV-place
as expressed through the idioms of ‘floating’ and ‘going out of bounds’. This also leads to a
discussion of transgressions involving the use of electronic devices, tattoos and hairstyles, leaving
school, and the discourse and practices around the concept of ‘pure Tibetans’. The ethnographic
material highlighting an ontogenesis of space opens the way to discuss the embodied practice of
interdependence among TCV inhabitants, the practice that challenges the usefulness of analytical
categories of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ for an anthropological analysis of the experience of growing up
and living in TCV.
Chapters 5 and 6 look closely at the idea of others being essential in the ontogenesis of
beings. Chapter 5 is based on examples of teasing and games that involve directing attention of
infants and children to other people, and bringing other people’s ‘gaze’ (seeing you) to bear on the
decisions made for self. In this way it draws an outline of a particular kind of pedagogic effort
directed at infants and toddlers, and traces this pedagogy in other, later stages of the schooling
experience in TCV.
Chapter 6 focuses specifically on grammatical constructions that seemed to be salient in
the interactions between TCV inhabitants (adults and children). These included: 1) addresseebound
verb use, and, specifically, I-for-you inversion in questions; 2) the use of honorific forms
for others (multiplicity and gradation of terms) and its proscription for self-referential statements;
3) evidentiality markers denoting direct or indirect experience and the salience of personal
connection to the subject/object/action. Such ethnographic exploration of the perspective
inversion in everyday language use and everyday interactions leads to the review of some tacit
assumptions about the ‘subject’ in subjectivity and intersubjectivity used as heuristic devices. The
chapter also explores the utility, feasibility and implications of including the dialogical dimension
of being in the anthropological inquiry.
The conclusion of the thesis focuses on the question of intersubjectivity not as given, but
as ‘teased out’ and formed through practices involving both the constitution of self and the
simultaneous and inevitable constitution of others. It also posits the necessity of ethnographic
exploration of different practices that might be involved in bringing forth intersubjectivity, and
questions about the resulting ‘intersubjectivities’. Discussion of different aspects of the experience
of living and growing up in a TCV campus developed in the previous chapters, i.e. the theory of
learning and understanding of “mind”, inner subjective experience and karmic imprints; discipline
and temporal frameworks predicated on the ideas of karmic causation; dependent arising; training
of awareness, attention and ethical judgement and the ideas of self, leads to a particular reading of
the TCV slogan “Others Before Self”. The analysis, which starts with an exploration of the ideology
of education expressed through a policy document building upon particular Buddhist premises, is
thus brought full circle, with lived Buddhist experience animating the ubiquitous TCV formula for
a human being.The play, language and lore of Brazilian children in the Recôncavo of BahiaWilliams, Rosalind Maryhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/111262019-04-01T09:31:07Z1978-01-01T00:00:00ZThe study records and examines the play, language of Brazilian children in the Recôncavo area of the state of Bahia in Northeast Brazil, using an ethnographic-linguistic approach based on fieldwork, there in 1973-1974. The Recôncavo is a fairly narrow strip of land surrounding the Bay of All the Saints, with its social and economic focus at Salvador, the capital of Bahia state. Play, language and lore are studied in the context of the history and social background of the Recôncavo, one of the earliest Indian-inhabited areas to be settled and colonised by the Portuguese, and one of the most densely African-populated once the Portuguese began to import negro labour to Brazil from Africa, a practice which spanned some three hundred years. Other factors examined are the continuing influences of European immigration at social levels and more recent cultural links with the United States.
Children's spontaneous play and imitative behaviour are classified and discussed as far as this is possible but the writer concentrates largely on more organised games detailing and commenting on the procedures and language involved, and, where relevant, indicating parallels and similarities in European and African games, as well as indigenous customs as far as these have been recorded. To facilitate discussion and comparison these into game preliminaries, games of speed and skill, duelling games and tests of strength, games of reflex control, forfeits and guessing, pretending, make-believe and acting games, progressing through infant rhymes and recreations to sung circle games and dramatic dialogues and sketches. Language as popularly employed by children outside their games is then examined and children's riddles and their use of poetic, language are discussed in two subsequent chapters,
Popular juvenile lore and the language and practices associated with it are then studied: the writer first details in chronological order a number of recurring popular festivals in which children are particularly involved and then examines occasional customs and beliefs.
The terminology employed in games is listed alphabetically in an appendix with explanations in English. There is also an appendix of game, names with chapter
references.
1978-01-01T00:00:00ZWilliams, Rosalind MaryThe study records and examines the play, language of Brazilian children in the Recôncavo area of the state of Bahia in Northeast Brazil, using an ethnographic-linguistic approach based on fieldwork, there in 1973-1974. The Recôncavo is a fairly narrow strip of land surrounding the Bay of All the Saints, with its social and economic focus at Salvador, the capital of Bahia state. Play, language and lore are studied in the context of the history and social background of the Recôncavo, one of the earliest Indian-inhabited areas to be settled and colonised by the Portuguese, and one of the most densely African-populated once the Portuguese began to import negro labour to Brazil from Africa, a practice which spanned some three hundred years. Other factors examined are the continuing influences of European immigration at social levels and more recent cultural links with the United States.
Children's spontaneous play and imitative behaviour are classified and discussed as far as this is possible but the writer concentrates largely on more organised games detailing and commenting on the procedures and language involved, and, where relevant, indicating parallels and similarities in European and African games, as well as indigenous customs as far as these have been recorded. To facilitate discussion and comparison these into game preliminaries, games of speed and skill, duelling games and tests of strength, games of reflex control, forfeits and guessing, pretending, make-believe and acting games, progressing through infant rhymes and recreations to sung circle games and dramatic dialogues and sketches. Language as popularly employed by children outside their games is then examined and children's riddles and their use of poetic, language are discussed in two subsequent chapters,
Popular juvenile lore and the language and practices associated with it are then studied: the writer first details in chronological order a number of recurring popular festivals in which children are particularly involved and then examines occasional customs and beliefs.
The terminology employed in games is listed alphabetically in an appendix with explanations in English. There is also an appendix of game, names with chapter
references.Emerging peoples : Marubo myth-chantsWerlang, Guilhermehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/111212019-04-01T09:31:41Z2001-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the ontological grounds of the interrelations between music and myth among the Marubo, one of the several native peoples of the Pano linguistic family who live not far from the adventitious border between Brazil and Peru, in South Western Amazonia. The thesis lies within the disciplinary boundaries of social anthropology but, inasmuch as it focuses on myth and music, its theoretical and methodological limits overlap any discipline that may relate to these two themes. In brief, it portrays the Marubo as they express themselves and are themselves expressed in their saiti festivals and myth-chants. In their native language, saiti designates a specific festival where myths are performed in a specific musical and choreographic form, the form that establishes the ontological origins of these peoples and those of the world where they live.
2001-01-01T00:00:00ZWerlang, GuilhermeThis thesis explores the ontological grounds of the interrelations between music and myth among the Marubo, one of the several native peoples of the Pano linguistic family who live not far from the adventitious border between Brazil and Peru, in South Western Amazonia. The thesis lies within the disciplinary boundaries of social anthropology but, inasmuch as it focuses on myth and music, its theoretical and methodological limits overlap any discipline that may relate to these two themes. In brief, it portrays the Marubo as they express themselves and are themselves expressed in their saiti festivals and myth-chants. In their native language, saiti designates a specific festival where myths are performed in a specific musical and choreographic form, the form that establishes the ontological origins of these peoples and those of the world where they live.Mobilisation and identity within the Palestinian refugee camps in LebanonSiemer, Maria Alexandrahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/111042019-04-01T09:29:19Z2005-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis examines political mobilisation into secular groups within Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. It focuses on context and identity in order to find out why and how Palestinians in the camps mobilise into these groups. The thesis uses a framework that incorporates three levels of analysis: structural; organisational; and individual. An ethnographic methodology is deployed involving interviews and participant observation in refugee camps in Lebanon. The thesis starts by looking at what sort of theoretical framework is necessary in order to understand the three key levels of analysis, including literature focusing on opportunities and constraints; human needs; resources; recruitment; social construction; and identity. The next focus is on context, looking at both the legal issues surrounding refugees - international, regional and local - as well as the historical context. The last three chapters examine the three levels of analysis individually, using them in conjunction with ethnographic research data to find out why and how Palestinians in the
camps mobilise. The conclusion shows that, contrary to what one would imagine from most of the mobilisation literature, the Palestinians in the camps are not mobilising as would be expected. Instead the ethnographic research results found that the political groups within the camps are not as politically and militarily active as would be presumed. Mobilisation into these political groups is happening for different reasons than in previous findings – focusing instead on solidarity and social issues. This change has happened for contextual and financial reasons, including the end of the Civil War and the Palestinian Revolution in Lebanon, as well as a severe lack of resources available to the political groups. The research results found that although there is still mobilisation into the political groups, there was also disillusionment among many youths at the political groups' inability to facilitate their return to Palestine from Lebanon, as well as dismay at what they saw as disunity between the Palestinian political groups.
2005-01-01T00:00:00ZSiemer, Maria AlexandraThis thesis examines political mobilisation into secular groups within Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. It focuses on context and identity in order to find out why and how Palestinians in the camps mobilise into these groups. The thesis uses a framework that incorporates three levels of analysis: structural; organisational; and individual. An ethnographic methodology is deployed involving interviews and participant observation in refugee camps in Lebanon. The thesis starts by looking at what sort of theoretical framework is necessary in order to understand the three key levels of analysis, including literature focusing on opportunities and constraints; human needs; resources; recruitment; social construction; and identity. The next focus is on context, looking at both the legal issues surrounding refugees - international, regional and local - as well as the historical context. The last three chapters examine the three levels of analysis individually, using them in conjunction with ethnographic research data to find out why and how Palestinians in the
camps mobilise. The conclusion shows that, contrary to what one would imagine from most of the mobilisation literature, the Palestinians in the camps are not mobilising as would be expected. Instead the ethnographic research results found that the political groups within the camps are not as politically and militarily active as would be presumed. Mobilisation into these political groups is happening for different reasons than in previous findings – focusing instead on solidarity and social issues. This change has happened for contextual and financial reasons, including the end of the Civil War and the Palestinian Revolution in Lebanon, as well as a severe lack of resources available to the political groups. The research results found that although there is still mobilisation into the political groups, there was also disillusionment among many youths at the political groups' inability to facilitate their return to Palestine from Lebanon, as well as dismay at what they saw as disunity between the Palestinian political groups.Italian entrepreneurs of the construction business in a time of economic recession : ideas, strategies and movementsSischarenco, Elenahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/110882017-06-26T15:05:32Z2017-06-22T00:00:00ZThis thesis is based on an ethnographic study of entrepreneurs of the construction business in Lombardy, Northern Italy. The aim is to gain some understanding of this business, of entrepreneurialism, and of individuals in a non-stereotypical light through a full and complex account of their daily lives. The aim is to reveal the thoughts, actions and strategies of particular local actors in their everyday contingency and contradictoriness. No attempt is made to simplify the complexity of their understandings and practices for the sake of producing a single encompassing and consistent image.
Many similarities were found between the practices of entrepreneurialism and those of the discipline of anthropology. Knowledge and information are constantly sought after but are recognised as emerging in unexpected places and times and as being socially negotiated. Apprenticeship is often used as a methodology, and learning often happens through experience. Contextual application of knowledge is seen as essential. In order to exchange information and knowledge, to collaborate with other businessmen or to simply get a job, trust is fundamental and constantly negotiated. Personal relationships and trust become particularly important in an uncertain market situation, as ways to face risk. Trust is acquired slowly and accorded contextually, through face-to-face interaction and cultivated relationships, but also through positive recommendations or simply a feeling of sympathy. Knowledge, apprenticeship, trust and risk are key themes of the thesis.
The blurred borders between the distinct individual personalities of my informants and their collective identities and commonalities are also discussed. The personality of an entrepreneur is seen as ideally complex, in which many (possibly contradictory) characteristics can be expected to be present, but also ideally balanced, each manifesting itself in specific situations. The ethnography also explores the fragility of the entrepreneur, in apparent contradiction to their strong and charismatic personalities. It is seen to be despite and because of their positions of power that they also feel vulnerable: their discourse is imbued with their fears for their businesses in a difficult period of economic crisis.
Finally, through a ubiquitous desire to control markets and the future, we also encounter forms of corruption; corruption that is often condemned verbally but nevertheless is present in the business world and amplified by public and media discourses. The mechanisms by which work that is put out to tender is subject to possible manipulation are examined, and the ideas of the entrepreneurs about these practices are described—again demonstrating how thoughts and practices are often self-contradictory in their contextual relevance and application.
2017-06-22T00:00:00ZSischarenco, ElenaThis thesis is based on an ethnographic study of entrepreneurs of the construction business in Lombardy, Northern Italy. The aim is to gain some understanding of this business, of entrepreneurialism, and of individuals in a non-stereotypical light through a full and complex account of their daily lives. The aim is to reveal the thoughts, actions and strategies of particular local actors in their everyday contingency and contradictoriness. No attempt is made to simplify the complexity of their understandings and practices for the sake of producing a single encompassing and consistent image.
Many similarities were found between the practices of entrepreneurialism and those of the discipline of anthropology. Knowledge and information are constantly sought after but are recognised as emerging in unexpected places and times and as being socially negotiated. Apprenticeship is often used as a methodology, and learning often happens through experience. Contextual application of knowledge is seen as essential. In order to exchange information and knowledge, to collaborate with other businessmen or to simply get a job, trust is fundamental and constantly negotiated. Personal relationships and trust become particularly important in an uncertain market situation, as ways to face risk. Trust is acquired slowly and accorded contextually, through face-to-face interaction and cultivated relationships, but also through positive recommendations or simply a feeling of sympathy. Knowledge, apprenticeship, trust and risk are key themes of the thesis.
The blurred borders between the distinct individual personalities of my informants and their collective identities and commonalities are also discussed. The personality of an entrepreneur is seen as ideally complex, in which many (possibly contradictory) characteristics can be expected to be present, but also ideally balanced, each manifesting itself in specific situations. The ethnography also explores the fragility of the entrepreneur, in apparent contradiction to their strong and charismatic personalities. It is seen to be despite and because of their positions of power that they also feel vulnerable: their discourse is imbued with their fears for their businesses in a difficult period of economic crisis.
Finally, through a ubiquitous desire to control markets and the future, we also encounter forms of corruption; corruption that is often condemned verbally but nevertheless is present in the business world and amplified by public and media discourses. The mechanisms by which work that is put out to tender is subject to possible manipulation are examined, and the ideas of the entrepreneurs about these practices are described—again demonstrating how thoughts and practices are often self-contradictory in their contextual relevance and application.Heavenly and grotesque imageries (re)created in the carnival of Oruro, BoliviaSanjinés, Paul Gonzalo Araozhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/110842019-04-01T09:28:40Z2003-01-01T00:00:00ZThe dissertation focuses on the creation of imageries in the Carnival of Oruro, in Central-Western Bolivia, where images from different sources are formed and transformed through the development of the festival over time. The production of mythological narratives, religious figures, choreographic performances, costumes, and masks gives place to a complex of icons representing natural and supernatural beings, all of which are intertwined in the enactment of carnival in Oruro. Following the imposition of a strict dichotomy between good and evil, "heavenly" and "infernal" imageries are constructed to depict a prescribed and proscribed behaviour, respectively. However, the morality underpinning such constructs is often contradicted by the actual behaviour of the individuals involved. The hyperactivity of the lower bodily stratum epitomises an
effective degradation of the elevated during the local celebration of the festival, rendering Bakhtin's approach appropriate for a study of the Oruro Carnival. Parallel to an analysis of the Carnival Parade, the dissertation provides a reflection on the discourses and practices inherent to the construction of a Bolivian national and cultural identity through the development of the festival. The symbolic oppositions observed in the
Oruro Carnival Parade are linked to the transfigured images, which are analysed in relation to changes in the socio-cultural composition of the participants. Focusing upon the actual behaviour of the social actors involved, as much as upon representational activities, I intend to provide an insight into the relationship between the official imagery and the chaotic enactment of popular culture during carnival.
2003-01-01T00:00:00ZSanjinés, Paul Gonzalo AraozThe dissertation focuses on the creation of imageries in the Carnival of Oruro, in Central-Western Bolivia, where images from different sources are formed and transformed through the development of the festival over time. The production of mythological narratives, religious figures, choreographic performances, costumes, and masks gives place to a complex of icons representing natural and supernatural beings, all of which are intertwined in the enactment of carnival in Oruro. Following the imposition of a strict dichotomy between good and evil, "heavenly" and "infernal" imageries are constructed to depict a prescribed and proscribed behaviour, respectively. However, the morality underpinning such constructs is often contradicted by the actual behaviour of the individuals involved. The hyperactivity of the lower bodily stratum epitomises an
effective degradation of the elevated during the local celebration of the festival, rendering Bakhtin's approach appropriate for a study of the Oruro Carnival. Parallel to an analysis of the Carnival Parade, the dissertation provides a reflection on the discourses and practices inherent to the construction of a Bolivian national and cultural identity through the development of the festival. The symbolic oppositions observed in the
Oruro Carnival Parade are linked to the transfigured images, which are analysed in relation to changes in the socio-cultural composition of the participants. Focusing upon the actual behaviour of the social actors involved, as much as upon representational activities, I intend to provide an insight into the relationship between the official imagery and the chaotic enactment of popular culture during carnival.The creation of real food and real people : gender complementarity among the Menku of Central BrazilPauli, Giselahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/110622019-11-27T16:58:03Z2000-01-01T00:00:00ZThe thesis aims to provide a first ethnographic description of the Menkü of Central Brazil by focussing on their non-hierarchical gender-complementarity as it realises itself in relationships of production and reproduction. The first part of the thesis comprises of an introduction to the group from a historical point of view by providing a description of the Menkü's historical experiences during this century. This is followed by a description of the settlement, and the social spaces it encompasses. The second part focusses on the creation of real food by firstly elaborating social and physical aspects of material production. Secondly, it explores the
metaphysical aspects of production and reproduction by uncovering the relationships human beings engage in with the world of masters of the elements, animals and ancestors. The third part of the thesis investigates processes underlying the creation of real people by focussing on
Menkü life cycle, kinship and social organisation. A person's life is depicted in the way
it is geared towards the acquisition of gendered skills of production and reproduction, which are fully manifested by the married couple. An outline of the Menkü system of classificatory marriage reveals the stress on the married couple from another point of view. It will be shown that the ideal marriage partners are identified by a conflation of gender and affinity. The last chapter explores the generation of sociality as it reveals itself in happiness, abundance and togetherness. It shows the extent to which a high communal morale is preconditioned upon non-hierarchical gender-relationships.
2000-01-01T00:00:00ZPauli, GiselaThe thesis aims to provide a first ethnographic description of the Menkü of Central Brazil by focussing on their non-hierarchical gender-complementarity as it realises itself in relationships of production and reproduction. The first part of the thesis comprises of an introduction to the group from a historical point of view by providing a description of the Menkü's historical experiences during this century. This is followed by a description of the settlement, and the social spaces it encompasses. The second part focusses on the creation of real food by firstly elaborating social and physical aspects of material production. Secondly, it explores the
metaphysical aspects of production and reproduction by uncovering the relationships human beings engage in with the world of masters of the elements, animals and ancestors. The third part of the thesis investigates processes underlying the creation of real people by focussing on
Menkü life cycle, kinship and social organisation. A person's life is depicted in the way
it is geared towards the acquisition of gendered skills of production and reproduction, which are fully manifested by the married couple. An outline of the Menkü system of classificatory marriage reveals the stress on the married couple from another point of view. It will be shown that the ideal marriage partners are identified by a conflation of gender and affinity. The last chapter explores the generation of sociality as it reveals itself in happiness, abundance and togetherness. It shows the extent to which a high communal morale is preconditioned upon non-hierarchical gender-relationships.Leave us alone, we do not want your help. Let us live our lives : indigenous resistance and ethnogenesis in Nueva Vizcaya (colonial Mexico)Rivera Acosta, Juan Manuelhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/110602019-04-01T09:29:59Z2017-06-22T00:00:00ZThis thesis looks at the people of Nueva Vizcaya’s history of resistance to
incorporation into the state during the colonial age, and how this history is
connected to the contemporary context in the Sierra Tarahumara. To do this, I use
and frame the concepts of community, resistance, violence, ethnogenesis,
territory and history as intertwined in such a way that the Sierra Tarahumara and
its inhabitants cannot be completely disassociated one from another.
By looking at the engagements between colonizers and native people of the
colonial North of the Nueva España –Tarahumara and other native indigenous
people of the Sierra Madre Occidental– in history, and frame the narratives about
these historical encounters, drawing colonial accounts, modern narratives and
other sources, I contest in this work, allows to frame indigenous societies agency
in history.
In addition, this thesis endeavors to engage with the broader discussion about
ethnogenesis, indigenous resistance to colonialism, native community and
ecological conflicts in Nueva Vizcaya and in the Sierra Tarahumara.
Finally, this research wants to make sense of the contemporary conflicts over land
rights that indigenous communities of the Sierra Tarahumara face today, and
connect them with the history of the colonial encounters of the people of the
Nueva Vizcaya. I propose that these encounters, in the colonial time of the
conquest of the Nueva Vizcaya, and in the national period, are largely a
consequence of a colonial process of ethnogenesis that taxonomically indexed
native people in categories related to colonial labor needs and control over the
territory, which I frame as tarahumarizacíon and raramurización.
2017-06-22T00:00:00ZRivera Acosta, Juan ManuelThis thesis looks at the people of Nueva Vizcaya’s history of resistance to
incorporation into the state during the colonial age, and how this history is
connected to the contemporary context in the Sierra Tarahumara. To do this, I use
and frame the concepts of community, resistance, violence, ethnogenesis,
territory and history as intertwined in such a way that the Sierra Tarahumara and
its inhabitants cannot be completely disassociated one from another.
By looking at the engagements between colonizers and native people of the
colonial North of the Nueva España –Tarahumara and other native indigenous
people of the Sierra Madre Occidental– in history, and frame the narratives about
these historical encounters, drawing colonial accounts, modern narratives and
other sources, I contest in this work, allows to frame indigenous societies agency
in history.
In addition, this thesis endeavors to engage with the broader discussion about
ethnogenesis, indigenous resistance to colonialism, native community and
ecological conflicts in Nueva Vizcaya and in the Sierra Tarahumara.
Finally, this research wants to make sense of the contemporary conflicts over land
rights that indigenous communities of the Sierra Tarahumara face today, and
connect them with the history of the colonial encounters of the people of the
Nueva Vizcaya. I propose that these encounters, in the colonial time of the
conquest of the Nueva Vizcaya, and in the national period, are largely a
consequence of a colonial process of ethnogenesis that taxonomically indexed
native people in categories related to colonial labor needs and control over the
territory, which I frame as tarahumarizacíon and raramurización.The sense of belonging and the migration trajectories of the members of the Latin American community in Edinburgh.Sokół-Klepacka, Martahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/110052019-04-01T09:31:50Z2017-06-22T00:00:00ZThis thesis is the outcome of my twelve-month ethnographic fieldwork among Latin Americans in Edinburgh. Using life story interviews, participant observation and online communication technologies, the research aims to explore the senses of belonging that different Latin Americans in Edinburgh have claimed at different moments of their lives and the dynamics of concurrent identities – the maintenance and reconstruction of national identity as well as the emergence of Latin American identity. It also addresses the multiplicity of reasons why various individuals have chosen to belong to the Latin American 'community' in Edinburgh and scrutinises their manifold home-making processes. Moreover, this thesis hopes to contribute to the studies on Latin Americans and to a debate regarding whether members of communities should be treated as individuals or as collective actors.
2017-06-22T00:00:00ZSokół-Klepacka, MartaThis thesis is the outcome of my twelve-month ethnographic fieldwork among Latin Americans in Edinburgh. Using life story interviews, participant observation and online communication technologies, the research aims to explore the senses of belonging that different Latin Americans in Edinburgh have claimed at different moments of their lives and the dynamics of concurrent identities – the maintenance and reconstruction of national identity as well as the emergence of Latin American identity. It also addresses the multiplicity of reasons why various individuals have chosen to belong to the Latin American 'community' in Edinburgh and scrutinises their manifold home-making processes. Moreover, this thesis hopes to contribute to the studies on Latin Americans and to a debate regarding whether members of communities should be treated as individuals or as collective actors.Fathermen : predicaments in fatherhood, masculinity and the kinship lifecourse. Dominica, West IndiesPhilogene Heron, Adomhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/109992019-04-01T09:28:46Z2017-01-01T00:00:00ZFathermen is an ethnographic journey in the kinship lives of men on the island of Dominica, West
Indies. It traces the various complexities, conundra and contradictions Dominican men encounter
and create as they navigate relational life trajectories. These are termed kinship predicaments:
moments in kin-lives that trouble hegemonic concepts of fatherhood and masculine personhood;
that spark ambivalence between dominant ideals and lived experiences; that provoke quarrels
between mothers’ expectations and fathers’ practices; and expose incongruities between
established norms and emerging forms. Seeking to transcend the historical and contemporary
circumscriptions that stereotype Caribbean fathers as absent studs or patriarchal authoritarians,
this enquiry asks how Dominican men chart their own paths of paternal becoming. Developing an
intuitive participatory methodology, referred to as the ethnography of relation, Fathermen
commutes into the kin-worlds of Caribbean men, seeking to understand fatherhood through deep
dialogue as it is built from the ground up. Organising its chapters around local idioms through
which Dominicans frame kinship, Fathermen features discussions on: the romantic and conjugal
tensions that precede/inform parenting; the ‘mystic’ bodily affects that draw men into
reproduction; the vexed norm of paternal provision; Caribbean fathers’ emergent nurturant
practices; the classed politics of paternal recognition; and, finally, men’s ambivalent
intergenerational experiences of becoming grandfathers. Fathermen argues that it often takes a
lifetime to realise fatherhood, with many Dominican men unable to resolve its many paradoxes
within their mortal spans. Whilst it contends that men are ‘tied’ tighter into kin-life as they grow
along their paternal journeys, ambivalences persist. Yet still, amidst angst and complexity,
Fathermen is nonetheless an ethnography of love, dedication, familial vitality, creativity and
humour.
2017-01-01T00:00:00ZPhilogene Heron, AdomFathermen is an ethnographic journey in the kinship lives of men on the island of Dominica, West
Indies. It traces the various complexities, conundra and contradictions Dominican men encounter
and create as they navigate relational life trajectories. These are termed kinship predicaments:
moments in kin-lives that trouble hegemonic concepts of fatherhood and masculine personhood;
that spark ambivalence between dominant ideals and lived experiences; that provoke quarrels
between mothers’ expectations and fathers’ practices; and expose incongruities between
established norms and emerging forms. Seeking to transcend the historical and contemporary
circumscriptions that stereotype Caribbean fathers as absent studs or patriarchal authoritarians,
this enquiry asks how Dominican men chart their own paths of paternal becoming. Developing an
intuitive participatory methodology, referred to as the ethnography of relation, Fathermen
commutes into the kin-worlds of Caribbean men, seeking to understand fatherhood through deep
dialogue as it is built from the ground up. Organising its chapters around local idioms through
which Dominicans frame kinship, Fathermen features discussions on: the romantic and conjugal
tensions that precede/inform parenting; the ‘mystic’ bodily affects that draw men into
reproduction; the vexed norm of paternal provision; Caribbean fathers’ emergent nurturant
practices; the classed politics of paternal recognition; and, finally, men’s ambivalent
intergenerational experiences of becoming grandfathers. Fathermen argues that it often takes a
lifetime to realise fatherhood, with many Dominican men unable to resolve its many paradoxes
within their mortal spans. Whilst it contends that men are ‘tied’ tighter into kin-life as they grow
along their paternal journeys, ambivalences persist. Yet still, amidst angst and complexity,
Fathermen is nonetheless an ethnography of love, dedication, familial vitality, creativity and
humour.Dancing into darkness : cosmopolitanism and 'peripherality' in the Greek goth sceneKarampampas, Panashttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/108292018-10-05T13:45:23Z2017-06-22T00:00:00ZThis thesis discusses concepts of cosmopolitism and peripherality in
the Greek and wider European goth scene. The research took place
primarily in Greece but extended to Germany, the United Kingdom and
online as I followed the movement of Athenian goths who were searching
for connectivity, hybridity and their cosmopolitan selves.
In living a hybrid cosmopolitan identity, goths regularly challenge
national stereotypes and transgress international boundaries. But
sometimes the complexities of goth cosmopolitan identity may also
contain unpalatable aspects, such as hard-core Greek or German
nationalism and views that verge on xenophobia or anarchism that are
seemingly at odds with the ‘open’ and ‘egalitarian’ persona put forward by
Athenian goths. It is through performance (particularly dance) that
Athenian goths choose to express their beliefs and desires, blending
aspects of the contemporary goth scene with twists of ‘traditional’ Greek
ideas. Often performance, with all its paradoxes and hybrid
contradictions, says more than words.
Movement is at the centre of goth identity; the movement of ideas
on social media, the physical movement of goths to overseas festivals and
the exchange of opinions among goths at nightclubs in Athens all
contribute to a hybrid cosmopolitan identity of a group of people who
reside both on the geographical periphery of Europe and on the periphery
of their own society. Goth identity is hybrid and complex with layers of
peripherality being channelled toward becoming an ever-developing
cosmopolitan subject. This thesis focuses on the core aspects of the goth
life-project which aim for individuality, connectivity, movement and
inclusivity. Being able to creatively display one’s hybrid cosmopolitanism
is the very essence of what it is to be goth.
2017-06-22T00:00:00ZKarampampas, PanasThis thesis discusses concepts of cosmopolitism and peripherality in
the Greek and wider European goth scene. The research took place
primarily in Greece but extended to Germany, the United Kingdom and
online as I followed the movement of Athenian goths who were searching
for connectivity, hybridity and their cosmopolitan selves.
In living a hybrid cosmopolitan identity, goths regularly challenge
national stereotypes and transgress international boundaries. But
sometimes the complexities of goth cosmopolitan identity may also
contain unpalatable aspects, such as hard-core Greek or German
nationalism and views that verge on xenophobia or anarchism that are
seemingly at odds with the ‘open’ and ‘egalitarian’ persona put forward by
Athenian goths. It is through performance (particularly dance) that
Athenian goths choose to express their beliefs and desires, blending
aspects of the contemporary goth scene with twists of ‘traditional’ Greek
ideas. Often performance, with all its paradoxes and hybrid
contradictions, says more than words.
Movement is at the centre of goth identity; the movement of ideas
on social media, the physical movement of goths to overseas festivals and
the exchange of opinions among goths at nightclubs in Athens all
contribute to a hybrid cosmopolitan identity of a group of people who
reside both on the geographical periphery of Europe and on the periphery
of their own society. Goth identity is hybrid and complex with layers of
peripherality being channelled toward becoming an ever-developing
cosmopolitan subject. This thesis focuses on the core aspects of the goth
life-project which aim for individuality, connectivity, movement and
inclusivity. Being able to creatively display one’s hybrid cosmopolitanism
is the very essence of what it is to be goth.Re-making urban space : writing social realities in the British cityJames, Ianhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/106062020-02-20T12:02:58Z2003-01-01T00:00:00ZIn this thesis I investigate the narrative rendering of urban experiences and the place of
agency within these renderings, looking in particular at the personal stories of urban
dwellers. Grounded in anthropological fieldwork in Britain - in the town of Romford
(Essex) to the east of London - but also relying on written sources on British social
realities, this thesis challenges the idea and practice of a traditional place-based
ethnography, calling in turn for an anthropological appreciation of the individual writing
of human experience. This I define as the considered ordering of the forms in terms of
which individuals experience their lives. I recognise that such ‘writing’, conceived as a
cognitive pursuit, is possible within speech and not, as some may have it, the exclusive
preserve of literary culture. In allowing that individuals may exercise authorship over
their lives in this way, I find it is possible, as well as potentially illuminating, to compare
individuals’ writings, their personal accounts of their lives, with other genres for writing
the reality of urban and peri-urban milieux in Britain. I hear significant correspondences
between each story-genre, especially as regards the impacts of town planning on urban
space for the populations that inhabit it, and discuss the possible theoretical implications
of this correspondence. I focus extensively on two such genres in addition to personal
stories: the sociological - examining Michael Young and Peter Willmott’s sociological
classic text ‘Family and Kinship in East London’ - and the literary - a reading of the work
of English poet and journalist John Betjeman. Running through the thesis is also an
appreciation of the figure of the amateur, both as a real actor and as a metaphor for the
postmodernist approach to culture to which I also subscribe.
2003-01-01T00:00:00ZJames, IanIn this thesis I investigate the narrative rendering of urban experiences and the place of
agency within these renderings, looking in particular at the personal stories of urban
dwellers. Grounded in anthropological fieldwork in Britain - in the town of Romford
(Essex) to the east of London - but also relying on written sources on British social
realities, this thesis challenges the idea and practice of a traditional place-based
ethnography, calling in turn for an anthropological appreciation of the individual writing
of human experience. This I define as the considered ordering of the forms in terms of
which individuals experience their lives. I recognise that such ‘writing’, conceived as a
cognitive pursuit, is possible within speech and not, as some may have it, the exclusive
preserve of literary culture. In allowing that individuals may exercise authorship over
their lives in this way, I find it is possible, as well as potentially illuminating, to compare
individuals’ writings, their personal accounts of their lives, with other genres for writing
the reality of urban and peri-urban milieux in Britain. I hear significant correspondences
between each story-genre, especially as regards the impacts of town planning on urban
space for the populations that inhabit it, and discuss the possible theoretical implications
of this correspondence. I focus extensively on two such genres in addition to personal
stories: the sociological - examining Michael Young and Peter Willmott’s sociological
classic text ‘Family and Kinship in East London’ - and the literary - a reading of the work
of English poet and journalist John Betjeman. Running through the thesis is also an
appreciation of the figure of the amateur, both as a real actor and as a metaphor for the
postmodernist approach to culture to which I also subscribe.Realities of an 'Orkney way' : communicating perceptions of renewable energy in Orkney, ScotlandFriend, Sarahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/104712019-04-01T09:29:40Z2017-06-22T00:00:00ZOrkney is currently home to over 400 wind turbines and a growing marine energy industry, developing cutting edge technology for what could be called a global energy transition. Situated off the north tip of the Scottish mainland, the archipelago is also home to a long-standing local population of just over 21,000 inhabitants. In fact, habitation in these islands stretches back over 5,000 years, a connection expressed by the local population. This thesis rests at the intersection of these two points of interest: energy and locality. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted between October 2013 and October 2014, this thesis analyses the communication of perceptions of renewable energy in the archipelago. It takes into consideration the specificity of one particular network of relations: the individuals employed or otherwise involved in the development and production of this energy while situating the specificity of these perceptions within the larger body of residents. Here, collective history, the importance of place, and maintenance of identity are intimately tied up in the range of perspectives present, as well as within the very promotion of the industry. The relationship between individual perception and collective affirmation, the existence of multiple spheres of realities, the simplification of realities in the communication meaning, and the relationship between nodes of interaction are all analysed. While far from a constantly discussed occurrence, the presence of renewable energy in Orkney has provided residents with a mobilising force, an impetus for discussions of the self, of identity and belonging, of the importance of place, and of the relationship between the past, present and future.
2017-06-22T00:00:00ZFriend, SaraOrkney is currently home to over 400 wind turbines and a growing marine energy industry, developing cutting edge technology for what could be called a global energy transition. Situated off the north tip of the Scottish mainland, the archipelago is also home to a long-standing local population of just over 21,000 inhabitants. In fact, habitation in these islands stretches back over 5,000 years, a connection expressed by the local population. This thesis rests at the intersection of these two points of interest: energy and locality. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted between October 2013 and October 2014, this thesis analyses the communication of perceptions of renewable energy in the archipelago. It takes into consideration the specificity of one particular network of relations: the individuals employed or otherwise involved in the development and production of this energy while situating the specificity of these perceptions within the larger body of residents. Here, collective history, the importance of place, and maintenance of identity are intimately tied up in the range of perspectives present, as well as within the very promotion of the industry. The relationship between individual perception and collective affirmation, the existence of multiple spheres of realities, the simplification of realities in the communication meaning, and the relationship between nodes of interaction are all analysed. While far from a constantly discussed occurrence, the presence of renewable energy in Orkney has provided residents with a mobilising force, an impetus for discussions of the self, of identity and belonging, of the importance of place, and of the relationship between the past, present and future.Kaale belongings and Evangelical becomings : faith, commitment and social outreach among the Finnish Kaale (Finnish Roma)Roman, Raluca Biancahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/103142020-02-19T14:36:07Z2017-06-22T00:00:00ZGrounded in a theoretical debate between anthropological studies on Roma/Gypsies and anthropological studies of Christianity, the focus of this thesis is on the experience of social and religious life among members of a traditional minority in Finland, the Finnish Kaale/Finnish Roma, a population of approximately 13.000 people living in Finland and Sweden. Over the past decades, the processes of urbanisation and sedentarisation have led to shifts in the ways in which the social lives of Kaale families are lived. A shift towards individualisation is interlinked with the continuous importance placed on family and kin belonging, which come together in a re-assessment of people’s central attachments in the world. At the same time, over the same period of time, a large number of this population have converted to Pentecostal and charismatic movements in the country, leading to subtle changes in the shape of social relations within and outside their own community: between believers and non-believers, between Kaale and non-Kaale. Making use of participant observation, interviews, conversion stories and individual life histories among Finnish Kaale living in the capital city of Helsinki and in Eastern parts of the country, this ethnography provides an insight into the multiple, overlapping and complex ways in which Kaale belonging is understood and into the ways in which Pentecostal religious life takes shape among born-again Kaale. Furthermore, looking specifically at the practice of Evangelism and missionary work, which defines the life of Pentecostal Kaale believers, the role of faith as an enhanced engagement with the world is analysed. A conversation therefore emerges also on the role of Pentecostal belonging in mobilising believers in relation to the world around them and, more specifically, on the way in which Pentecostal faith provides an avenue for a further social engagement and social mobilisation of individual Kaale believers.
2017-06-22T00:00:00ZRoman, Raluca BiancaGrounded in a theoretical debate between anthropological studies on Roma/Gypsies and anthropological studies of Christianity, the focus of this thesis is on the experience of social and religious life among members of a traditional minority in Finland, the Finnish Kaale/Finnish Roma, a population of approximately 13.000 people living in Finland and Sweden. Over the past decades, the processes of urbanisation and sedentarisation have led to shifts in the ways in which the social lives of Kaale families are lived. A shift towards individualisation is interlinked with the continuous importance placed on family and kin belonging, which come together in a re-assessment of people’s central attachments in the world. At the same time, over the same period of time, a large number of this population have converted to Pentecostal and charismatic movements in the country, leading to subtle changes in the shape of social relations within and outside their own community: between believers and non-believers, between Kaale and non-Kaale. Making use of participant observation, interviews, conversion stories and individual life histories among Finnish Kaale living in the capital city of Helsinki and in Eastern parts of the country, this ethnography provides an insight into the multiple, overlapping and complex ways in which Kaale belonging is understood and into the ways in which Pentecostal religious life takes shape among born-again Kaale. Furthermore, looking specifically at the practice of Evangelism and missionary work, which defines the life of Pentecostal Kaale believers, the role of faith as an enhanced engagement with the world is analysed. A conversation therefore emerges also on the role of Pentecostal belonging in mobilising believers in relation to the world around them and, more specifically, on the way in which Pentecostal faith provides an avenue for a further social engagement and social mobilisation of individual Kaale believers.Bougainville revisited : understanding the crisis and U-Vistract through an ethnography of everyday life in NagovisiKenema, Simonhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/102892019-05-23T15:59:55Z2015-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis offers an ethnographic study of everyday life in Nagovisi of Southwest
Bougainville. The study focuses on aspects of how the Nagovisi construe social
relations with a specific focus on vernacular categories and ideologies. The thesis
deals with ideas about land, perceptions about the fluid nature of Nagovisi sociality,
movement, and U-Vistract. The study is primarily based on thirteen months of field
research I conducted in the Nagovisi between September 2011 and November of
2012.
Through the exploration of the various thematic issues in the individual
chapters the thesis offers a comparative scope for a tangential re-evaluation of the
mine related crisis on the island. The focus on Noah Musinku and the Kingdom of
Papala further illustrates this comparative scope by drawing an analogy between
Panguna and U-Vistract and the complex entanglements and interrelationships
between ideas relating to land, history, myth, relatedness, social unpredictability, and
notions about wealth. It deals with the question of how persons, land and
knowledge are mutually constitutive, and how each can affect the other as a result of
history, and movement in time and space.
By focusing on Nagovisi notions of the unpredictability of talk, knowledge, and
the implication this bears on the nature of how people relate to each other and
different places the thesis deals with what has long been proven a recalcitrant
problem in PNG anthropological literature in which local life worlds are
characterised by a fluidity of social forms.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZKenema, SimonThis thesis offers an ethnographic study of everyday life in Nagovisi of Southwest
Bougainville. The study focuses on aspects of how the Nagovisi construe social
relations with a specific focus on vernacular categories and ideologies. The thesis
deals with ideas about land, perceptions about the fluid nature of Nagovisi sociality,
movement, and U-Vistract. The study is primarily based on thirteen months of field
research I conducted in the Nagovisi between September 2011 and November of
2012.
Through the exploration of the various thematic issues in the individual
chapters the thesis offers a comparative scope for a tangential re-evaluation of the
mine related crisis on the island. The focus on Noah Musinku and the Kingdom of
Papala further illustrates this comparative scope by drawing an analogy between
Panguna and U-Vistract and the complex entanglements and interrelationships
between ideas relating to land, history, myth, relatedness, social unpredictability, and
notions about wealth. It deals with the question of how persons, land and
knowledge are mutually constitutive, and how each can affect the other as a result of
history, and movement in time and space.
By focusing on Nagovisi notions of the unpredictability of talk, knowledge, and
the implication this bears on the nature of how people relate to each other and
different places the thesis deals with what has long been proven a recalcitrant
problem in PNG anthropological literature in which local life worlds are
characterised by a fluidity of social forms.Report to the dancefloor : journeys by experience and writing into raving and anthropologyReeves, Barryhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/99492019-04-01T09:29:45Z1998-01-01T00:00:00ZThis work is an ethnography about raving. As such, it is based on the
author's actual, inter-subjective and historical experience of that
contemporary international social phenomenon in Britain and in Goa (India)
during the late 1980s and 1990s. It is written from the position of an involved,
participating subject over time. This ethnographic approach and the emphasis
placed upon subjective experience, history and knowledge 'from
within' throughout the work is aimed, critically speaking, at tendencies
within contemporary forms of anthropology which favour academic
introspection, inter-textuality, textual notions concerning social life and overinterpretation.
This commitment to ethnography is also used in the final
section of the work, within a critical-historical appreciation of the discipline,
to argue for a re-statement of Malinowski's radical 'science' of ethnography in
the face of a routinisation of 'science' as a legitimating discourse within the
discipline during the twentieth century.
Furthermore, the ethnographic approach is also set out, in a way which
attempts to make the work relevant not only to practitioners of anthropology,
as a way of producing public knowledge and accounts of social life which are
very different, ethically and politically, from those produced within other
public practices and contexts, such as by the media and government agencies.
Representations and accounts produced by such public agencies are situated
and questioned in the work through attaching them, as loaded products, to
Michel Foucault's political notion of modern 'governmentality ' Within
such a politicised account of representation, the author has used long-established,
humanist notions surrounding the practice of ethnography,
regarding participation and empathy, in order to produce accounts of
raving as a human social practice. These humanised and politicised
accounts of the phenomenon are offered as a contrast to the predominating
public accounts of the practice, produced through distanced and disinterested
discourses, which mainly focus upon its ability to animate certain powerful
social categories and forms of exclusion, such as 'the criminal' and 'the addict',
and socio-political discourses, such as that on 'drugs' and 'the war against
drugs'. This contrast, and the opposition and demand for human tolerance
it expresses, forms part of a wider project within the work which resists dehumanisation;
that is, the treatment of human beings and their practices in
terms of self-serving discourses (monologues) as opposed to the humanising
and politicising effects of experience, interaction and
empathy/understanding (dialogue).
Within this general framework surrounding the politics and ethics
of representation, other areas which are explored are the position/role
of the anthropologist and the use of subjectivity within the
research process, the use of creative writing as a source of
humanised ethnographic knowledge about diverse social worlds, and an
exploration into the possible uses and limits of academic theorisation.
1998-01-01T00:00:00ZReeves, BarryThis work is an ethnography about raving. As such, it is based on the
author's actual, inter-subjective and historical experience of that
contemporary international social phenomenon in Britain and in Goa (India)
during the late 1980s and 1990s. It is written from the position of an involved,
participating subject over time. This ethnographic approach and the emphasis
placed upon subjective experience, history and knowledge 'from
within' throughout the work is aimed, critically speaking, at tendencies
within contemporary forms of anthropology which favour academic
introspection, inter-textuality, textual notions concerning social life and overinterpretation.
This commitment to ethnography is also used in the final
section of the work, within a critical-historical appreciation of the discipline,
to argue for a re-statement of Malinowski's radical 'science' of ethnography in
the face of a routinisation of 'science' as a legitimating discourse within the
discipline during the twentieth century.
Furthermore, the ethnographic approach is also set out, in a way which
attempts to make the work relevant not only to practitioners of anthropology,
as a way of producing public knowledge and accounts of social life which are
very different, ethically and politically, from those produced within other
public practices and contexts, such as by the media and government agencies.
Representations and accounts produced by such public agencies are situated
and questioned in the work through attaching them, as loaded products, to
Michel Foucault's political notion of modern 'governmentality ' Within
such a politicised account of representation, the author has used long-established,
humanist notions surrounding the practice of ethnography,
regarding participation and empathy, in order to produce accounts of
raving as a human social practice. These humanised and politicised
accounts of the phenomenon are offered as a contrast to the predominating
public accounts of the practice, produced through distanced and disinterested
discourses, which mainly focus upon its ability to animate certain powerful
social categories and forms of exclusion, such as 'the criminal' and 'the addict',
and socio-political discourses, such as that on 'drugs' and 'the war against
drugs'. This contrast, and the opposition and demand for human tolerance
it expresses, forms part of a wider project within the work which resists dehumanisation;
that is, the treatment of human beings and their practices in
terms of self-serving discourses (monologues) as opposed to the humanising
and politicising effects of experience, interaction and
empathy/understanding (dialogue).
Within this general framework surrounding the politics and ethics
of representation, other areas which are explored are the position/role
of the anthropologist and the use of subjectivity within the
research process, the use of creative writing as a source of
humanised ethnographic knowledge about diverse social worlds, and an
exploration into the possible uses and limits of academic theorisation.The Portuguese conquest of the Amazon Estuary : identity, war, frontier (1612-1654)Ibáñez-Bonillo, Pablohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/97902019-04-01T09:28:45Z2016-12-01T00:00:00ZThe Portuguese conquest and colonization of Brazil was mediated by the Tupi-Guarani societies that inhabited the Atlantic coast in a discontinuous pattern from the estuary of the River Plate to the mouth of the Amazon. In fact, the extension of Portuguese occupation coincides with the limits of expansion of these Tupi-Guarani societies in most regions, suggesting a historical relation with deep potential implications.
This work studies the conquest and construction of the Portuguese colonial frontier in the Lower Amazon and its estuary at the beginning of the XVIIth century, aiming to unveil the nature of the relations between Portuguese and Amerindian societies. The starting point is the hypothesis that the presence of Tupinamba societies from the Brazilian northeast, and of many other groups linked with them through language and culture, helped the Portuguese cause in their dispute for the control of the southern Amazon shores with other European competitors trading in the region. However, this very same dependency on the Tupinamba also acted as a brake on the Portuguese conquest as it headed north. This is supposed by the fact that almost no Tupi-Guarani traces have been recorded on the northern shore of the Amazon.
After analyzing native American dynamics in Brazil and Guayana, this work presents a detailed study of the battles and skirmishes fought by opposed European interests, and their natives allies, in the Amazon from 1616 to 1632. The last part is devoted to the analysis of the process of cultural construction on the colonial frontier, through conquest mechanisms that were also deployed on other colonial American frontiers. Among these mechanisms I emphasise the implementation of a set of institutions and the construction of a negative and savage native alterity through narratives that have been reproduced by the regional historiography.
2016-12-01T00:00:00ZIbáñez-Bonillo, PabloThe Portuguese conquest and colonization of Brazil was mediated by the Tupi-Guarani societies that inhabited the Atlantic coast in a discontinuous pattern from the estuary of the River Plate to the mouth of the Amazon. In fact, the extension of Portuguese occupation coincides with the limits of expansion of these Tupi-Guarani societies in most regions, suggesting a historical relation with deep potential implications.
This work studies the conquest and construction of the Portuguese colonial frontier in the Lower Amazon and its estuary at the beginning of the XVIIth century, aiming to unveil the nature of the relations between Portuguese and Amerindian societies. The starting point is the hypothesis that the presence of Tupinamba societies from the Brazilian northeast, and of many other groups linked with them through language and culture, helped the Portuguese cause in their dispute for the control of the southern Amazon shores with other European competitors trading in the region. However, this very same dependency on the Tupinamba also acted as a brake on the Portuguese conquest as it headed north. This is supposed by the fact that almost no Tupi-Guarani traces have been recorded on the northern shore of the Amazon.
After analyzing native American dynamics in Brazil and Guayana, this work presents a detailed study of the battles and skirmishes fought by opposed European interests, and their natives allies, in the Amazon from 1616 to 1632. The last part is devoted to the analysis of the process of cultural construction on the colonial frontier, through conquest mechanisms that were also deployed on other colonial American frontiers. Among these mechanisms I emphasise the implementation of a set of institutions and the construction of a negative and savage native alterity through narratives that have been reproduced by the regional historiography.The way of the unfinished : approaching migrant lives in São Paulo through resonanceToji, Simonehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/97852019-04-01T09:31:26Z2016-10-07T00:00:00ZIn following several international migrants in the city of São Paulo, I found that inarticulate moments of hesitation, uncertainty, or suspension punctuated their trajectories. These fleeting and subtle instances revealed that people’s lives were pervaded by a certain ‘messiness’ that pointed out the limits of understanding life and the world through scientific standards of generalisation and coherence.
Requiring a different attitude concerning the making of anthropology, ‘messiness’ compelled my ethnographic account to admit that: firstly, people, places and situations, held a ‘mystery’ that my efforts of scientific disclosure could never clarify completely; secondly, each attempt to live in the world became a very singular experimentation.
In order to ethnographically do justice to the ‘mystery’ and ‘singularity’ I found in the lives I followed in São Paulo, this account found in Levinas’s work inspiration to develop a phenomenological approach. This phenomenological approach combined two movements. The first movement searched for a way of incorporating the faltering occasions of inarticulacy in people’s lives through imagination, signalling the limits of understanding these lives through objective knowledge, and proposing to appreciate them through processes of human recognition. This procedure was crafted as a ‘poetics of resonance’, an aesthetic operation converting lived experience into written expression in a way that imagination can offer a sense of what it is to live a particular life or experience in its richness. The second movement in this phenomenological approach refers to the recognition of a human life in its singularity, attempting to substantiate it ethnographically in the form of particular ‘life-journeys’, which is an approximation to what Levinas described as ‘uniqueness’.
As follows, seven specific life-journeys are presented, organised as ‘journeys of being’, ‘in-be(ing)tween journeys’, and ‘journeys of becoming’, according to the elements of affiliation each research participant stressed in their respective course shared with me.
From the richness of these ethnographic particulars, insights for migration and urban studies were derived from the phenomenological approach undertaken. The ethnographic evidence questioned a sense of complexity based on categorisation in migration studies and suggested that for the portrayed life-journeys a concept of immensity is more appropriate than a concept of identity. Concerning theories about the urban, the mobility manifested by the life-journeys in São Paulo and beyond conveyed, not a city of ethnic neighbourhoods, but a city of ‘rough’ experimentation, according to people’s positionality and their ability to find their own ways in the city and in the world.
2016-10-07T00:00:00ZToji, SimoneIn following several international migrants in the city of São Paulo, I found that inarticulate moments of hesitation, uncertainty, or suspension punctuated their trajectories. These fleeting and subtle instances revealed that people’s lives were pervaded by a certain ‘messiness’ that pointed out the limits of understanding life and the world through scientific standards of generalisation and coherence.
Requiring a different attitude concerning the making of anthropology, ‘messiness’ compelled my ethnographic account to admit that: firstly, people, places and situations, held a ‘mystery’ that my efforts of scientific disclosure could never clarify completely; secondly, each attempt to live in the world became a very singular experimentation.
In order to ethnographically do justice to the ‘mystery’ and ‘singularity’ I found in the lives I followed in São Paulo, this account found in Levinas’s work inspiration to develop a phenomenological approach. This phenomenological approach combined two movements. The first movement searched for a way of incorporating the faltering occasions of inarticulacy in people’s lives through imagination, signalling the limits of understanding these lives through objective knowledge, and proposing to appreciate them through processes of human recognition. This procedure was crafted as a ‘poetics of resonance’, an aesthetic operation converting lived experience into written expression in a way that imagination can offer a sense of what it is to live a particular life or experience in its richness. The second movement in this phenomenological approach refers to the recognition of a human life in its singularity, attempting to substantiate it ethnographically in the form of particular ‘life-journeys’, which is an approximation to what Levinas described as ‘uniqueness’.
As follows, seven specific life-journeys are presented, organised as ‘journeys of being’, ‘in-be(ing)tween journeys’, and ‘journeys of becoming’, according to the elements of affiliation each research participant stressed in their respective course shared with me.
From the richness of these ethnographic particulars, insights for migration and urban studies were derived from the phenomenological approach undertaken. The ethnographic evidence questioned a sense of complexity based on categorisation in migration studies and suggested that for the portrayed life-journeys a concept of immensity is more appropriate than a concept of identity. Concerning theories about the urban, the mobility manifested by the life-journeys in São Paulo and beyond conveyed, not a city of ethnic neighbourhoods, but a city of ‘rough’ experimentation, according to people’s positionality and their ability to find their own ways in the city and in the world.Debating irony and the ironic as a social phenomenon and a human capacityRapport, Nigel JulianStade, Ronaldhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/97472023-04-18T09:55:59Z2014-11-01T00:00:00ZWhat follows is a set of paired articles, followed by a statement by both authors where they debate their distinct positions. Both articles treat irony, but while Rapport looks to it as a possible liberal virtue, a means of dealing with radical difference in a modern democracy, including the illiberal, Stade approaches irony from an ontological position that considers social relationships and cultural contingencies to be but one facet of human existence and irony and alienation to have an existential depth, the study of which can facilitate a rapprochement between sociocultural and philosophical anthropology. The paired articles are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, perhaps: irony as world-mocking as well as world-tolerant.
2014-11-01T00:00:00ZRapport, Nigel JulianStade, RonaldWhat follows is a set of paired articles, followed by a statement by both authors where they debate their distinct positions. Both articles treat irony, but while Rapport looks to it as a possible liberal virtue, a means of dealing with radical difference in a modern democracy, including the illiberal, Stade approaches irony from an ontological position that considers social relationships and cultural contingencies to be but one facet of human existence and irony and alienation to have an existential depth, the study of which can facilitate a rapprochement between sociocultural and philosophical anthropology. The paired articles are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, perhaps: irony as world-mocking as well as world-tolerant.Bridging worlds : movement, relatedness and social change in two communities of Cartagena de Indias BayBasso, Cristinahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/94992019-11-27T17:19:33Z2015-01-01T00:00:00ZThe island of Barú, located along the Atlantic coast of Colombia, has occupied, since the
colonial era, a geographical and social interstitial position. The island was a strategic space
in key processes and events of colonial and national modernity. Its inhabitants have combined
movement and interaction across geographical spaces and social groups with retreat and
relative closure.
The historical experiences of dislocation and of marginality have shaped local modes of
relatedness and particular ways of signifying and narrating “family”, masculinities and
femininities, the divine and the wondrous.
State and capital’s progressive encroachment over the Island trans-territory has recently
undergone a conspicuous acceleration. Moreover, new religious organizations have
influenced the ways in which people think and talk about identity, local forms of sociality and
religiosity.
“Development” and ethnicity-based identity politics have functioned as identity-,
community- and memory (re-)making devices. Various political and economic actors
currently envision and try to implement projects of “place” which commoditize the island and
aim to reshape local subjectivities and relational modes according to market-oriented values.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZBasso, CristinaThe island of Barú, located along the Atlantic coast of Colombia, has occupied, since the
colonial era, a geographical and social interstitial position. The island was a strategic space
in key processes and events of colonial and national modernity. Its inhabitants have combined
movement and interaction across geographical spaces and social groups with retreat and
relative closure.
The historical experiences of dislocation and of marginality have shaped local modes of
relatedness and particular ways of signifying and narrating “family”, masculinities and
femininities, the divine and the wondrous.
State and capital’s progressive encroachment over the Island trans-territory has recently
undergone a conspicuous acceleration. Moreover, new religious organizations have
influenced the ways in which people think and talk about identity, local forms of sociality and
religiosity.
“Development” and ethnicity-based identity politics have functioned as identity-,
community- and memory (re-)making devices. Various political and economic actors
currently envision and try to implement projects of “place” which commoditize the island and
aim to reshape local subjectivities and relational modes according to market-oriented values.The perpetual return of the ancestors : an ethnographic account of the Southern Tepehuan of Mexico and their deitiesReyes Valdez, Jorge Antoniohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/94782019-07-15T10:41:56Z2015-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an ethnographic account of the different ritual domains of
interaction between the O’dam of Northern Mexico and their gods. For the
O’dam, also known as the Southern Tepehuan, gods, divinities, and different
types of spirits have an ancestral character since they are considered as the
original inhabitants of the world. It is possible to identify three groups of deities
which the O’dam interact with within different ceremonial contexts. Firstly, there
are the native ceremonial centres known as xiotalh patios, where the O’dam
engage with the gods of agriculture, and hunt. Here, children are initiated in
maize-eating, young men are initiated in deer hunting, and the kinship groups
renew their vows with the gods of maize. Secondly, within the context of the
church and the courthouse, the O’dam interact with the Christian deities through
a complex organisation inherited from the Spanish cofradías and cabildos. This
group of deities is associated with European activities such as breeding
livestock, going to school, and participating in local politics. These relationships
between the O’dam and the Christian deities are mainly reproduced by the
participation in church festivals. And thirdly, in the domain of the forest the
O’dam conduct retreats during five weeks in which they interact with deities and
spirits associated with different types of diseases. Since this is the context of
shamanic initiation, it is here that individuals learn how to master the spirits
responsible for inflicting illnesses, emerging from the retreats with stronger
souls which are more resilient to harm. In this work, I approach these three
different domains of interaction between the O’dam and their deities from the
perspective of ceremonial leaders and shamans, as well as from the
perspective of what can be defined as an ‘ordinary person’.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZReyes Valdez, Jorge AntonioThis thesis is an ethnographic account of the different ritual domains of
interaction between the O’dam of Northern Mexico and their gods. For the
O’dam, also known as the Southern Tepehuan, gods, divinities, and different
types of spirits have an ancestral character since they are considered as the
original inhabitants of the world. It is possible to identify three groups of deities
which the O’dam interact with within different ceremonial contexts. Firstly, there
are the native ceremonial centres known as xiotalh patios, where the O’dam
engage with the gods of agriculture, and hunt. Here, children are initiated in
maize-eating, young men are initiated in deer hunting, and the kinship groups
renew their vows with the gods of maize. Secondly, within the context of the
church and the courthouse, the O’dam interact with the Christian deities through
a complex organisation inherited from the Spanish cofradías and cabildos. This
group of deities is associated with European activities such as breeding
livestock, going to school, and participating in local politics. These relationships
between the O’dam and the Christian deities are mainly reproduced by the
participation in church festivals. And thirdly, in the domain of the forest the
O’dam conduct retreats during five weeks in which they interact with deities and
spirits associated with different types of diseases. Since this is the context of
shamanic initiation, it is here that individuals learn how to master the spirits
responsible for inflicting illnesses, emerging from the retreats with stronger
souls which are more resilient to harm. In this work, I approach these three
different domains of interaction between the O’dam and their deities from the
perspective of ceremonial leaders and shamans, as well as from the
perspective of what can be defined as an ‘ordinary person’.What is a schema? : Invited contribution to symposium on Philippe DescolaToren, Christinahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/91652023-04-18T10:07:31Z2014-01-01T00:00:00ZComment on Descola, Philippe. 2013. Beyond nature and culture. Translated by Janet Lloyd with a foreword by Marshall Sahlins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2014-01-01T00:00:00ZToren, ChristinaComment on Descola, Philippe. 2013. Beyond nature and culture. Translated by Janet Lloyd with a foreword by Marshall Sahlins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Self-esteem, dreams & indignation : lessons from an emerging middle-class private high school in Northeast BrazilWisdahl, Michelehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/88672019-04-01T09:32:19Z2016-06-23T00:00:00ZThis thesis provides an ethnography of the final year at an emerging middle-class private high school in the Northeast of Brazil. It draws on 15 months of fieldwork, including participant observation in the classroom wherein I followed students whilst they prepared for vestibular (the university entrance exam). Students’ movements through Fortaleza, one of the world’s most unequal cities, produced knowledge about the kind of person that one could and should be in the future. Private schooling appeared to provide a route for students to realise that metaphorical (and perhaps physical) movement. Vestibular served as a sort of rite of passage that could transform (emerging middle-class) youth into (middle-class) adults. Students and teachers characterised vestibular as a luta (fight) that could be won with enough training, flexibility and commitment. Good or high self-esteem was needed to overcome laziness and endure this luta and, thus, teachers and students worked on producing better self-esteem through affective work. Dreams (aspirations for the future) also played a critical role: the school encouraged students to engage in time work, to imagine appropriate future(s) into which students could channel their energies in the present. This version of individual power differed from the political and economic power structures portrayed in the classroom. Students grew indignant as, through curriculum and pedagogy, they came to understand that they were oppressed and that Brazil was underdeveloped and not quite modern. The university entrance exam served as a national meritocratic ritual that portrayed Brazil as becoming modern with governable and governing citizens. Students resisted these assertions and/but their cynicisms belied hope for better imagined futures. Using the classroom as container, this thesis presents a portrait of people and ideas in formation during a post-Lula era.
2016-06-23T00:00:00ZWisdahl, MicheleThis thesis provides an ethnography of the final year at an emerging middle-class private high school in the Northeast of Brazil. It draws on 15 months of fieldwork, including participant observation in the classroom wherein I followed students whilst they prepared for vestibular (the university entrance exam). Students’ movements through Fortaleza, one of the world’s most unequal cities, produced knowledge about the kind of person that one could and should be in the future. Private schooling appeared to provide a route for students to realise that metaphorical (and perhaps physical) movement. Vestibular served as a sort of rite of passage that could transform (emerging middle-class) youth into (middle-class) adults. Students and teachers characterised vestibular as a luta (fight) that could be won with enough training, flexibility and commitment. Good or high self-esteem was needed to overcome laziness and endure this luta and, thus, teachers and students worked on producing better self-esteem through affective work. Dreams (aspirations for the future) also played a critical role: the school encouraged students to engage in time work, to imagine appropriate future(s) into which students could channel their energies in the present. This version of individual power differed from the political and economic power structures portrayed in the classroom. Students grew indignant as, through curriculum and pedagogy, they came to understand that they were oppressed and that Brazil was underdeveloped and not quite modern. The university entrance exam served as a national meritocratic ritual that portrayed Brazil as becoming modern with governable and governing citizens. Students resisted these assertions and/but their cynicisms belied hope for better imagined futures. Using the classroom as container, this thesis presents a portrait of people and ideas in formation during a post-Lula era.Perceiving and participating in cultural heritage : an ethnography about the process of preservation of Ouro Preto, BrazilDe Souza Santos, Andreza Aruskahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/88252023-04-25T11:24:48Z2016-06-23T00:00:00ZThis thesis discusses the promises and pitfalls of city preservation in Ouro Preto, a Brazilian city preserved nationally and hailed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Using interviews, archival material, ethnographic observations, and the analysis of public meetings on city preservation in Ouro Preto in 2013, I study how the city’s legacy as a national treasure of monumental architecture has endured until now, despite different coexisting standards of living, perceptions and uses of the city, and views of the past. In Ouro Preto, while fluctuating populations of tourists and students live mainly in the historic city centre, permanent residents often build their homes in underprivileged and marginalised areas and benefit little from their cultural heritage. Spatial exclusion and preservation policies, allegedly favouring outsiders, boost the divide between residents and newcomers, echoing the colonial past of the city. Disputes around the preservation of the cityscape invited widespread participation. One expectation of increased grassroots participation in cultural heritage sites is that it could expose varied and fluid perspectives of the city, and consequently allow for corresponding, more inclusive uses. However, when looking at local participatory practices in heritage policies, I consider the challenge for grassroots meetings to include different citizens and viewpoints, when the ability to disagree in public debates and participation are restricted by socio-economic conditions. The ethnographic character of this research offers a platform to investigate anthropological questions regarding the role, limits and expectations around cultural heritage and participatory practices in a context of varied socio-economic levels and fluid perceptions of aesthetics, history, and everyday uses of public spaces in a fragmented city.
2016-06-23T00:00:00ZDe Souza Santos, Andreza AruskaThis thesis discusses the promises and pitfalls of city preservation in Ouro Preto, a Brazilian city preserved nationally and hailed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Using interviews, archival material, ethnographic observations, and the analysis of public meetings on city preservation in Ouro Preto in 2013, I study how the city’s legacy as a national treasure of monumental architecture has endured until now, despite different coexisting standards of living, perceptions and uses of the city, and views of the past. In Ouro Preto, while fluctuating populations of tourists and students live mainly in the historic city centre, permanent residents often build their homes in underprivileged and marginalised areas and benefit little from their cultural heritage. Spatial exclusion and preservation policies, allegedly favouring outsiders, boost the divide between residents and newcomers, echoing the colonial past of the city. Disputes around the preservation of the cityscape invited widespread participation. One expectation of increased grassroots participation in cultural heritage sites is that it could expose varied and fluid perspectives of the city, and consequently allow for corresponding, more inclusive uses. However, when looking at local participatory practices in heritage policies, I consider the challenge for grassroots meetings to include different citizens and viewpoints, when the ability to disagree in public debates and participation are restricted by socio-economic conditions. The ethnographic character of this research offers a platform to investigate anthropological questions regarding the role, limits and expectations around cultural heritage and participatory practices in a context of varied socio-economic levels and fluid perceptions of aesthetics, history, and everyday uses of public spaces in a fragmented city.The path to ethnogenesis and autonomy : Kallawaya-consciousness in plurinational BoliviaAlderman, Jonathanhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/86002019-04-01T09:32:17Z2016-06-23T00:00:00ZThis thesis examines the construction of ethnic identity, autonomy and indigenous citizenship in plurinational Bolivia. In 2009, the Kallawayas, an Andean indigenous nation, took advantage of legislation in Bolivia’s new constitution to begin a process of legally constituting themselves as autonomous from the state. The objective of Indigenous Autonomy in the constitution is to allow indigenous nations and peoples to govern themselves according to their conceptions of ‘Living Well’. Living well, for the Kallawayas is understood in terms of what it means to be runa, a person living in the ayllu (the traditional Andean community). The Kallawayas are noted as healers, and sickness and health is understood as related to the maintenance of a ritual relationship of reciprocity with others in the ayllu, both living humans and ancestors, remembered in the landscape. Joint ritual relations with the landscape play an important role in joining disparate Kallawaya ayllus with distinct traditions and languages (Aymara, Quechua and the Kallawaya language Macha Jujay are spoken) together as an ethnic group. However, Kallawaya politics has followed the trajectory of national peasant politics in recent decades of splitting into federations divided along class and ethnic lines. The joint ritual practices which traditionally connected the Kallawaya ayllus adapted to reflect this new situation of division between three sections of Kallawaya society. This has meant that the Kallawayas are attempting political autonomy as an ethnic group when they have never been more fractured. This thesis then examines the meaning of autonomy and the Good Life for a politically divided and ethnically diverse indigenous people.
2016-06-23T00:00:00ZAlderman, JonathanThis thesis examines the construction of ethnic identity, autonomy and indigenous citizenship in plurinational Bolivia. In 2009, the Kallawayas, an Andean indigenous nation, took advantage of legislation in Bolivia’s new constitution to begin a process of legally constituting themselves as autonomous from the state. The objective of Indigenous Autonomy in the constitution is to allow indigenous nations and peoples to govern themselves according to their conceptions of ‘Living Well’. Living well, for the Kallawayas is understood in terms of what it means to be runa, a person living in the ayllu (the traditional Andean community). The Kallawayas are noted as healers, and sickness and health is understood as related to the maintenance of a ritual relationship of reciprocity with others in the ayllu, both living humans and ancestors, remembered in the landscape. Joint ritual relations with the landscape play an important role in joining disparate Kallawaya ayllus with distinct traditions and languages (Aymara, Quechua and the Kallawaya language Macha Jujay are spoken) together as an ethnic group. However, Kallawaya politics has followed the trajectory of national peasant politics in recent decades of splitting into federations divided along class and ethnic lines. The joint ritual practices which traditionally connected the Kallawaya ayllus adapted to reflect this new situation of division between three sections of Kallawaya society. This has meant that the Kallawayas are attempting political autonomy as an ethnic group when they have never been more fractured. This thesis then examines the meaning of autonomy and the Good Life for a politically divided and ethnically diverse indigenous people.The infliction of descent : an overview of the Capanahua descendants’ explanations of the generative processKrokoszyński, Łukaszhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/85662019-10-17T08:47:43Z2016-06-23T00:00:00ZThis thesis traces the ways of explaining the generative process by the eastern Peruvian descendants of the Capanahua. These predominately Spanish-speaking people tend to emphasize the discontinuity with their ancestors, a little known Panoan-speaking indigenous population of the Western Amazon. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and transcriptions of recorded conversations, this presentation follows and reconstructs a salient frustrative-generative dynamic in a wide range of representations, wherein alterations of self-containment or perceptibility incept the processes of differentiation and discontinuity. These processes guide a local conception of “descent” as infliction.
Implications of this dynamic are examined for the formulations of kinship. The familial relations, explicitly based on notions of consanguinity and filiation – are cast in an ambiguous, if not predominately negative light. Procreation is formulated in predatory, parasitic terms, and shares dynamics with pathogenic causality and aetiology. As such, it does not naturally contribute to reproduction and continuity, but rather frustrates it by introducing difference into the vertical axis. Such results also produce horizontal differences and hierarchies, encoded as the person’s divergent, hidden “descent” in the always “mixed” social life.
This image of the generative process is instrumental to understanding the villagers’ explanations of the acculturative processes. Because representations of acculturation focuses on the idiom of procreation and its frustrative results, it appears as the very function of procreative dynamics. This produces a series of associations between the progeny and sociality, focusing on their inherently “third” or external position and perpetual dividuality of belonging/containing. Such ambiguity might be tamed and everted, to produce cleansing or encompassment that counteracts the divisive continuity of time (qua descent, history, or kinship). In a contemporary context, these formulations are seen reflected in the villagers’ construal of the Peruvian state as the urban environment that is hierarchically closer to the ideal originality and beautiful imperishability than the smaller, isolated unities of rural ancestors.
2016-06-23T00:00:00ZKrokoszyński, ŁukaszThis thesis traces the ways of explaining the generative process by the eastern Peruvian descendants of the Capanahua. These predominately Spanish-speaking people tend to emphasize the discontinuity with their ancestors, a little known Panoan-speaking indigenous population of the Western Amazon. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and transcriptions of recorded conversations, this presentation follows and reconstructs a salient frustrative-generative dynamic in a wide range of representations, wherein alterations of self-containment or perceptibility incept the processes of differentiation and discontinuity. These processes guide a local conception of “descent” as infliction.
Implications of this dynamic are examined for the formulations of kinship. The familial relations, explicitly based on notions of consanguinity and filiation – are cast in an ambiguous, if not predominately negative light. Procreation is formulated in predatory, parasitic terms, and shares dynamics with pathogenic causality and aetiology. As such, it does not naturally contribute to reproduction and continuity, but rather frustrates it by introducing difference into the vertical axis. Such results also produce horizontal differences and hierarchies, encoded as the person’s divergent, hidden “descent” in the always “mixed” social life.
This image of the generative process is instrumental to understanding the villagers’ explanations of the acculturative processes. Because representations of acculturation focuses on the idiom of procreation and its frustrative results, it appears as the very function of procreative dynamics. This produces a series of associations between the progeny and sociality, focusing on their inherently “third” or external position and perpetual dividuality of belonging/containing. Such ambiguity might be tamed and everted, to produce cleansing or encompassment that counteracts the divisive continuity of time (qua descent, history, or kinship). In a contemporary context, these formulations are seen reflected in the villagers’ construal of the Peruvian state as the urban environment that is hierarchically closer to the ideal originality and beautiful imperishability than the smaller, isolated unities of rural ancestors.The meanings of sobreparto : postpartum illness and embodiment of emotions among Andean migrants in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, BoliviaKuberska, Karolinahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/85242019-04-01T09:30:50Z2016-06-23T00:00:00ZThis thesis concerns a postpartum condition known as sobreparto among female Andean migrants in the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. While sobreparto is a traditionally Andean illness, its occurrence in the lowland city of Santa Cruz opens up new dimensions of analysis. In addition to exposing transformations of the traditional understandings of health, illness, and the body, the study of this phenomenon in an atypical setting sheds new light on issues such as migration, social networks, biomedicalisation, or gender patterns. By means of narratives of lives interrupted by sobreparto, it is possible to locate this condition within a wider frame of life trajectories, exposing motifs beyond the temporarily dysfunctional body. I argue that the narratives of sobreparto can be used as a springboard for a study of transformations in the understandings of motherhood and womanhood, migration and social networks, as well as emotions. Looking at these processes through the lens of a postpartum illness also reveals the connections between the ill body, the troubled mind, and imperfect social relationships. On the one hand, sobreparto can be analysed at the micro-level – in terms of an understanding of the body, individual reproductive histories, or the availability of other people’s support. On the other hand, sobreparto constitutes a commentary on phenomena occurring at the macro-level, such as large-scale internal migration in Bolivia or the increasing domination of biomedicine as a model of health and illness. The city of Santa Cruz offers a unique setting for scrutinising these changes using a traditionally Andean postpartum illness as a point of departure. Being much more than a postpartum bodily dysfunction, sobreparto, therefore, can be used as a lens through which it is possible to see the interplay of social and political macro- and micro-processes in people’s lives at the time of reproduction.
2016-06-23T00:00:00ZKuberska, KarolinaThis thesis concerns a postpartum condition known as sobreparto among female Andean migrants in the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. While sobreparto is a traditionally Andean illness, its occurrence in the lowland city of Santa Cruz opens up new dimensions of analysis. In addition to exposing transformations of the traditional understandings of health, illness, and the body, the study of this phenomenon in an atypical setting sheds new light on issues such as migration, social networks, biomedicalisation, or gender patterns. By means of narratives of lives interrupted by sobreparto, it is possible to locate this condition within a wider frame of life trajectories, exposing motifs beyond the temporarily dysfunctional body. I argue that the narratives of sobreparto can be used as a springboard for a study of transformations in the understandings of motherhood and womanhood, migration and social networks, as well as emotions. Looking at these processes through the lens of a postpartum illness also reveals the connections between the ill body, the troubled mind, and imperfect social relationships. On the one hand, sobreparto can be analysed at the micro-level – in terms of an understanding of the body, individual reproductive histories, or the availability of other people’s support. On the other hand, sobreparto constitutes a commentary on phenomena occurring at the macro-level, such as large-scale internal migration in Bolivia or the increasing domination of biomedicine as a model of health and illness. The city of Santa Cruz offers a unique setting for scrutinising these changes using a traditionally Andean postpartum illness as a point of departure. Being much more than a postpartum bodily dysfunction, sobreparto, therefore, can be used as a lens through which it is possible to see the interplay of social and political macro- and micro-processes in people’s lives at the time of reproduction.The capacities of anyone : accommodating the universal human subject as value and in spaceRapport, Nigel Julianhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/83432023-04-19T00:37:16Z2014-03-01T00:00:00Z2014-03-01T00:00:00ZRapport, Nigel JulianAnthropology in the vernacular : an ethnography of doing knowledge on Choiseul Island, Solomon IslandsTracey, Jonathan M.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/78222023-10-31T12:29:41Z2015-11-30T00:00:00ZThis thesis absorbs and reflects on Choiseul Island responses and caution towards the making of anthropological knowledge. Initial interests that can easily become familiar to anthropology as research topics such as village life, local cosmology and local alternatives to cosmologies of climate and ecology, make way here for another activity of working through Choiseul responses to anthropology. In taking seriously the precautions and the considerations of people in this Solomon Islands locality, anthropology is invited to put a stoppage to practices that it would consider ordinary and part of anthropological knowledge making. This impasse for the discipline is outlined and explored in various chapters, in which usual styles of ethnography and topic-making take formation in respect of a Choiseul world that does not fit easily into encapsulation by anthropology. Effects for the discipline of anthropology are given consideration, within a wider view of imagining how an alternative anthropology in the vernacular can also entail an obviation of anthropology itself in favour of new forms of cultural sensitivity.
2015-11-30T00:00:00ZTracey, Jonathan M.This thesis absorbs and reflects on Choiseul Island responses and caution towards the making of anthropological knowledge. Initial interests that can easily become familiar to anthropology as research topics such as village life, local cosmology and local alternatives to cosmologies of climate and ecology, make way here for another activity of working through Choiseul responses to anthropology. In taking seriously the precautions and the considerations of people in this Solomon Islands locality, anthropology is invited to put a stoppage to practices that it would consider ordinary and part of anthropological knowledge making. This impasse for the discipline is outlined and explored in various chapters, in which usual styles of ethnography and topic-making take formation in respect of a Choiseul world that does not fit easily into encapsulation by anthropology. Effects for the discipline of anthropology are given consideration, within a wider view of imagining how an alternative anthropology in the vernacular can also entail an obviation of anthropology itself in favour of new forms of cultural sensitivity.In the name of the tourist : landscape, heritage, and social change in ChincheroGarcia, Pablohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/77932019-04-01T09:32:10Z2015-11-30T00:00:00ZThis thesis examines social change in the Quechua-speaking town of Chinchero (Peru), located 30 km away from the city of Cuzco. It does so by studying the conditions created by touristic development in the Region. It is an ethnography that builds on, and dialogues with, previous ethnographies done in Chinchero before. It focuses on issues of landscape and cultural heritage, as these are some of the domains most affected by the changes brought about by tourism, among other forms of modernization. The thesis looks at processes of re-territorialization and social exclusion that have followed the reconversion of the Inca ruins into an Archaeological Park. It also studies the town´s reputed textile tradition in a context of growing commercialization. Over the last few years, coinciding with a surge in tourism in the region, the tourist demand for “authentic” indigenous crafts has fostered significant changes in the textile production of Chinchero. The multiplication of weaving centers where the ethnicity is performed for the tourist gaze, plus the social implications of this new mode of social organization, comes into scrutiny.
Another major focus of attention is the project of the New International Airport of Cuzco in Chinchero land. The airport is a direct consequence of tourist development in the Region. This thesis explores processes of social disruption and environmental conflict as the project is deeply dividing the community and raising expectations of progress that that are unlikely to be met. Additionally, the airport intersects with issues of indigeneity and the redefinition of the ethnic identity as the project engages with the supposed incompatibility between being indigenous, and thus “traditional”, and being modern, a process that involves the commercialization of “ancestral” land and the heavy reworking of a landscape where the ancestors and other-than-human forces still dwell.
2015-11-30T00:00:00ZGarcia, PabloThis thesis examines social change in the Quechua-speaking town of Chinchero (Peru), located 30 km away from the city of Cuzco. It does so by studying the conditions created by touristic development in the Region. It is an ethnography that builds on, and dialogues with, previous ethnographies done in Chinchero before. It focuses on issues of landscape and cultural heritage, as these are some of the domains most affected by the changes brought about by tourism, among other forms of modernization. The thesis looks at processes of re-territorialization and social exclusion that have followed the reconversion of the Inca ruins into an Archaeological Park. It also studies the town´s reputed textile tradition in a context of growing commercialization. Over the last few years, coinciding with a surge in tourism in the region, the tourist demand for “authentic” indigenous crafts has fostered significant changes in the textile production of Chinchero. The multiplication of weaving centers where the ethnicity is performed for the tourist gaze, plus the social implications of this new mode of social organization, comes into scrutiny.
Another major focus of attention is the project of the New International Airport of Cuzco in Chinchero land. The airport is a direct consequence of tourist development in the Region. This thesis explores processes of social disruption and environmental conflict as the project is deeply dividing the community and raising expectations of progress that that are unlikely to be met. Additionally, the airport intersects with issues of indigeneity and the redefinition of the ethnic identity as the project engages with the supposed incompatibility between being indigenous, and thus “traditional”, and being modern, a process that involves the commercialization of “ancestral” land and the heavy reworking of a landscape where the ancestors and other-than-human forces still dwell."¡Yo soy Aymara, yo soy calle!" : a study of young people re-imagining indigeneity and resisting marginalisation in El Alto, BoliviaHarrison, Charlotte Rosehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/75042020-02-05T09:48:04Z2013-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the new self-narratives which are currently being created by young
alteños with experience of living and/or working on the streets. These young people are
projecting their visions for the future and challenging their marginal status by going
back to their roots, looking to the history, myths, legends and practices of their ancestors
for inspiration. They are constantly affirming and reaffirming their connections both to
the older generations and to Pachamama (Mother Earth). These connections, rather than
being threatened by the urbanity of their present existence, are actually enhanced by it.
Specifically, this thesis addresses the creativity employed by young alteños as they
make a claim to modernity through working as shoe-shiners, conducting rituals such as
the ch'alla to Pachamama, participating in festivals to create collectivity and belonging,
and politicising indigenous culture in hip-hop at La Casa Juvenil de las Culturas Wayna
Tambo in El Alto. This thesis explores the hopes and ambitions of young alteños; the
ways they conceive of the future. Whilst it is true that the Presidency of Evo Morales
has acted as a catalyst in the processes of re-evaluation of indigenous culture currently
underway in Bolivia, this thesis proposes that, in the case of young people in El Alto,
they do not merely accept his authority, but are constantly questioning, challenging and
- where necessary - opposing, the changes introduced. Therefore, this thesis
investigates the ways in which young alteños navigate and re-imagine categories of
“indigeneity,” “authenticity” and “modernity” - how they affect and are affected by
them in their everyday lives. It asks what it means to be young and Aymara today, in El
Alto, and argues that there is no contradiction being both 'Aymara' and 'Street.' In using
a youth-centred methodology, this thesis aims to give a direct voice to these young
people and weight to their claims as agents of change in contemporary Bolivia.
2013-01-01T00:00:00ZHarrison, Charlotte RoseThis thesis explores the new self-narratives which are currently being created by young
alteños with experience of living and/or working on the streets. These young people are
projecting their visions for the future and challenging their marginal status by going
back to their roots, looking to the history, myths, legends and practices of their ancestors
for inspiration. They are constantly affirming and reaffirming their connections both to
the older generations and to Pachamama (Mother Earth). These connections, rather than
being threatened by the urbanity of their present existence, are actually enhanced by it.
Specifically, this thesis addresses the creativity employed by young alteños as they
make a claim to modernity through working as shoe-shiners, conducting rituals such as
the ch'alla to Pachamama, participating in festivals to create collectivity and belonging,
and politicising indigenous culture in hip-hop at La Casa Juvenil de las Culturas Wayna
Tambo in El Alto. This thesis explores the hopes and ambitions of young alteños; the
ways they conceive of the future. Whilst it is true that the Presidency of Evo Morales
has acted as a catalyst in the processes of re-evaluation of indigenous culture currently
underway in Bolivia, this thesis proposes that, in the case of young people in El Alto,
they do not merely accept his authority, but are constantly questioning, challenging and
- where necessary - opposing, the changes introduced. Therefore, this thesis
investigates the ways in which young alteños navigate and re-imagine categories of
“indigeneity,” “authenticity” and “modernity” - how they affect and are affected by
them in their everyday lives. It asks what it means to be young and Aymara today, in El
Alto, and argues that there is no contradiction being both 'Aymara' and 'Street.' In using
a youth-centred methodology, this thesis aims to give a direct voice to these young
people and weight to their claims as agents of change in contemporary Bolivia.The development of pre-Hispanic art forms in Peru : seen as an outgrowth of textile techniques and their influence upon art forms and depiction of symbolsMacKay, W. Iainhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/73592019-04-01T09:30:52Z1988-01-01T00:00:00ZPre-Hispanic geometric art
forms In Peru
and the Andean Area
are taken to be
an
outgrowth of textile techniques. Textiles
and
fibre
arts predate ceramics
by
several millennia
In the Central Andean Area. The artist who created these textiles developed
an art style which
was to go
largely
unaltered until the arrival of the Spaniards. The foundations
of the Andean
art
form date to the Pre-ceramic. The restrictive, rather
Inflexible
nature of the warp and the weft
of the cloth
(the
geometric grid) was to influence the methods of represention that were to
follow. Geometric designs
were well suited to fit Into the rigid
framework. A
series of
conventions were
developed for the representation of symbols.
With the development
of ceramics, there was
leeway for
a new style to come
Into being.
However, this was not to be the case. The
potter
borrowed
extensively
from the weaving
tradition and
Its
associated styles
(only in Moche times did the potter make a
break the highly
geometric style
developed
centuries
before,
and even then this break
with tradition was a short
lived one).
The pre-Columbian artist often portrayed birds,
cats, fish and reptiles.
Many of these
designs were used
frequently and repeatedly throughout the centuries,
but none,
I
would
maintain. was represented as
frequently as the double-headed serpent, and with so
few variants.
Andean art
Is
a truly distinctive art
form;
very different from European art, and through Its
geometricity
It
conveyed and still conveys a totally different
approach to nature and the world
surrounding Andean man.
1988-01-01T00:00:00ZMacKay, W. IainPre-Hispanic geometric art
forms In Peru
and the Andean Area
are taken to be
an
outgrowth of textile techniques. Textiles
and
fibre
arts predate ceramics
by
several millennia
In the Central Andean Area. The artist who created these textiles developed
an art style which
was to go
largely
unaltered until the arrival of the Spaniards. The foundations
of the Andean
art
form date to the Pre-ceramic. The restrictive, rather
Inflexible
nature of the warp and the weft
of the cloth
(the
geometric grid) was to influence the methods of represention that were to
follow. Geometric designs
were well suited to fit Into the rigid
framework. A
series of
conventions were
developed for the representation of symbols.
With the development
of ceramics, there was
leeway for
a new style to come
Into being.
However, this was not to be the case. The
potter
borrowed
extensively
from the weaving
tradition and
Its
associated styles
(only in Moche times did the potter make a
break the highly
geometric style
developed
centuries
before,
and even then this break
with tradition was a short
lived one).
The pre-Columbian artist often portrayed birds,
cats, fish and reptiles.
Many of these
designs were used
frequently and repeatedly throughout the centuries,
but none,
I
would
maintain. was represented as
frequently as the double-headed serpent, and with so
few variants.
Andean art
Is
a truly distinctive art
form;
very different from European art, and through Its
geometricity
It
conveyed and still conveys a totally different
approach to nature and the world
surrounding Andean man.Roots of/routes to : practice and performance of identity in the Isle of ManLewis, Susanhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/72972019-04-01T09:28:42Z2004-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis takes as its ethnographic focus the Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency. In the 1960s, the Manx government faced an economic crisis. The response was to open the Island to international banking, becoming an 'offshore' financial centre. The new industry sector has encouraged substantial immigration, to the extent that the Island-born are now in the minority. The Island now has economic success on one hand, but a new 'identity' crisis of cultural confidence on the other, raising the question 'what is it (now), to be Manx?' The Manx have always accepted incomers and are not, or ever have been, a clearly defined ethnic group. Rather 'Manxness' is an idea, a set of values, a way of relating to place and to each other. Defined thus, 'Manx identity' could be, and has been, shared with incomers. The current situation is, however, perceived as substantially different in its speed and volume, resulting in concerns that Manx culture and identity is disappearing under the weight of an alien cultural import. Reaction is demonstrated in renewed interest in the Manx Gaelic language and other 'traditiona1' pursuits, with individuals selecting routes to identification with place that satisfy personal motivations. Included in this performance of culture are members of the 'incomer' group blamed for its demise, while many Island-born show little concern. Through subtle analysis of this complex context, I add to anthropological understanding of 'identity' and 'way of life' by juxtaposing personal and collective responses to this process of change, and investigating the importance of scales of difference. And, in a disciplinary context that has shifted attention from bounded to boundless 'homes', I ask how far anthropological constructions go in explicating how and why our informants still struggle to strike a meaningful balance between their roots of and routes to identity
2004-01-01T00:00:00ZLewis, SusanThis thesis takes as its ethnographic focus the Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency. In the 1960s, the Manx government faced an economic crisis. The response was to open the Island to international banking, becoming an 'offshore' financial centre. The new industry sector has encouraged substantial immigration, to the extent that the Island-born are now in the minority. The Island now has economic success on one hand, but a new 'identity' crisis of cultural confidence on the other, raising the question 'what is it (now), to be Manx?' The Manx have always accepted incomers and are not, or ever have been, a clearly defined ethnic group. Rather 'Manxness' is an idea, a set of values, a way of relating to place and to each other. Defined thus, 'Manx identity' could be, and has been, shared with incomers. The current situation is, however, perceived as substantially different in its speed and volume, resulting in concerns that Manx culture and identity is disappearing under the weight of an alien cultural import. Reaction is demonstrated in renewed interest in the Manx Gaelic language and other 'traditiona1' pursuits, with individuals selecting routes to identification with place that satisfy personal motivations. Included in this performance of culture are members of the 'incomer' group blamed for its demise, while many Island-born show little concern. Through subtle analysis of this complex context, I add to anthropological understanding of 'identity' and 'way of life' by juxtaposing personal and collective responses to this process of change, and investigating the importance of scales of difference. And, in a disciplinary context that has shifted attention from bounded to boundless 'homes', I ask how far anthropological constructions go in explicating how and why our informants still struggle to strike a meaningful balance between their roots of and routes to identityImages of the Dai : the aesthetics of gender and identity in XishuangbannaKomlosy, Anouskahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/72932019-04-01T09:32:07Z2002-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is based on fieldwork carried out m Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. The main focus of the work is the Dai people, one of China's fifty-five so called 'Minority Nationalities'. I aim to paint a picture of the complex processes through which Dai ways of being and images of them are created and recreated. This is not to suggest that the Dai constitute a bounded group. Although Chinese official discourse presents a static, rigid picture of the so-called 'Minority Nationalities', I hope to have demonstrated that the everyday experiences of those in Banna are governed by a fluid and dynamic relationality. Images of 'Minority Nationalities' abound in China, these images are multiple and often contradictory. The Dai are known throughout China for their beauty, a beauty often portrayed as highly erotic. In this thesis I explore the implications of this image and the role of the Dai in its formation and continuity. With this in mind I examine the ways that the striking Dai aesthetic is used in the intricate power plays of Xishuangbanna. This work examines aspects of the Dai lived aesthetic and as such it has chapters on tattoo, architecture and feminine beauty. Dai aesthetic knowledge is interlaced with strands of moral, philosophical and cosmological insight, thus this work also includes a chapter on morality, autonomy and cooperation. The penultimate chapter uses vivid ethnography of the Water Splashing festival as a example of play of identities in Xishuangbanna. The Conclusion reiterates that the processes by which images, identities and aesthetic understandings are generated, and by which limits are explored and transgressed in Xishuangbanna are dialogic in character.
2002-01-01T00:00:00ZKomlosy, AnouskaThis thesis is based on fieldwork carried out m Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. The main focus of the work is the Dai people, one of China's fifty-five so called 'Minority Nationalities'. I aim to paint a picture of the complex processes through which Dai ways of being and images of them are created and recreated. This is not to suggest that the Dai constitute a bounded group. Although Chinese official discourse presents a static, rigid picture of the so-called 'Minority Nationalities', I hope to have demonstrated that the everyday experiences of those in Banna are governed by a fluid and dynamic relationality. Images of 'Minority Nationalities' abound in China, these images are multiple and often contradictory. The Dai are known throughout China for their beauty, a beauty often portrayed as highly erotic. In this thesis I explore the implications of this image and the role of the Dai in its formation and continuity. With this in mind I examine the ways that the striking Dai aesthetic is used in the intricate power plays of Xishuangbanna. This work examines aspects of the Dai lived aesthetic and as such it has chapters on tattoo, architecture and feminine beauty. Dai aesthetic knowledge is interlaced with strands of moral, philosophical and cosmological insight, thus this work also includes a chapter on morality, autonomy and cooperation. The penultimate chapter uses vivid ethnography of the Water Splashing festival as a example of play of identities in Xishuangbanna. The Conclusion reiterates that the processes by which images, identities and aesthetic understandings are generated, and by which limits are explored and transgressed in Xishuangbanna are dialogic in character.Sistemas regionais, relações interétnicas e movimentos territoriais : os Tapajó e além na história ameríndiaHarris, Markhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/72882024-03-17T00:41:56Z2015-08-04T00:00:00ZEsse artigo considera o nascimento de um território ameríndio complexo no Baixo Amazonas no final do século XVII. Esse território, identificado pela região dos rios Madeira/Tapajós, pode ser vista como uma zona tribal, fora do contato direto com a sociedade colonial, entretanto conectada a ela. A guerra entre os Tapajó (costa sul, ao redor da foz do rio Tapajós) e os Aruaque (costa norte, ao redor do lago Saracá), que já ocorria durante grande parte do século dezessete, chegou a um ápice no inicio de 1660. Com envolvimento europeu, a guerra acabou gerando consequências para o potencial coletivo de ambas partes, que ficou muito reduzido. Considerando as relações de alianças e combates, esse artigo confronta as transformações internas e externas no Baixo Amazonas, focando na nação tapajó. Será que esses grandes povos se dividiram em etnias diferentes, ou se reagruparam na zona tribal, ou ainda, será que diminuíram e perderam poder?
2015-08-04T00:00:00ZHarris, MarkEsse artigo considera o nascimento de um território ameríndio complexo no Baixo Amazonas no final do século XVII. Esse território, identificado pela região dos rios Madeira/Tapajós, pode ser vista como uma zona tribal, fora do contato direto com a sociedade colonial, entretanto conectada a ela. A guerra entre os Tapajó (costa sul, ao redor da foz do rio Tapajós) e os Aruaque (costa norte, ao redor do lago Saracá), que já ocorria durante grande parte do século dezessete, chegou a um ápice no inicio de 1660. Com envolvimento europeu, a guerra acabou gerando consequências para o potencial coletivo de ambas partes, que ficou muito reduzido. Considerando as relações de alianças e combates, esse artigo confronta as transformações internas e externas no Baixo Amazonas, focando na nação tapajó. Será que esses grandes povos se dividiram em etnias diferentes, ou se reagruparam na zona tribal, ou ainda, será que diminuíram e perderam poder?Love and hate among the people without things : the social and economic relations of the Enxet people of ParaguayKidd, Stephen Williamhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/72812020-03-17T16:29:47Z2000-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis
examines the
social and economic relations of the Enxet indigenous
people of the Paraguayan Chaco
region who place a
high
value on egalitarianism,
generosity and personal autonomy.
However, during the twentieth century their land has
been
colonized
by
cattle ranchers and they have been
obliged to enter the market
economy.
While
anthropologists
have
proposed a range of theories to explain
indigenous
social and economic relations, the main concern of this thesis is to examine
how the
Enxet themselves explain their social
behaviour. The Enxet
make salient use of
"emotion
words" when
discussing their social and economic practices.
For instance,
a
fundamental
dichotomy in Enxet thought is between "love"
and
"hate"
and much of their discourse
centres on these two concepts.
The Enxet
seek to create
"good/beautiful"
people who
know how to act appropriately.
In
certain contexts they should practise
"love"
while
in
other contexts
"hate" is
acceptable.
Enxet
social organization should not be understood as a structure but
as a process,
as something that is being
continually created.
I
will consider
different
aspects of this
process through an examination of
kinship,
co-residence, marital relations,
"brideservice"
and
inter-community
contact, and
I
will
describe how
economic transactions are
key
elements
in the generation of
"loving"
social relations.
However,
self-centred practices
create many challenges to a
harmonious
community
life
and
I
will consider
how the
Enxet
strive to overcome them. Of
particular
interest
will
be demand
sharing which
responds,
in
part, to a strongly-held egalitarian ethic
but
can also provoke
disharmony
and
discomfort in
community
life. I
will also
discuss
commodity relations within
Enxet
communities and challenge the common assumption that money
is
necessarily
destructive
of
indigenous
social relations.
I
will conclude that the overriding goal of the Enxet is the attainment of
tranquillity in both their personal and social
lives. For the Enxet,
economic relations are
not about gaining material wealth
but
about
living
well with other people.
They
recognize
that personal affective comfort
is dependent on engendering tranquillity in
other people.
Therefore, the "emotion
words" they use to explain their social
behaviour
should not
be
regarded as merely referring to "feelings" but
as encompassing an aesthetics of social
behaviour.
2000-01-01T00:00:00ZKidd, Stephen WilliamThis thesis
examines the
social and economic relations of the Enxet indigenous
people of the Paraguayan Chaco
region who place a
high
value on egalitarianism,
generosity and personal autonomy.
However, during the twentieth century their land has
been
colonized
by
cattle ranchers and they have been
obliged to enter the market
economy.
While
anthropologists
have
proposed a range of theories to explain
indigenous
social and economic relations, the main concern of this thesis is to examine
how the
Enxet themselves explain their social
behaviour. The Enxet
make salient use of
"emotion
words" when
discussing their social and economic practices.
For instance,
a
fundamental
dichotomy in Enxet thought is between "love"
and
"hate"
and much of their discourse
centres on these two concepts.
The Enxet
seek to create
"good/beautiful"
people who
know how to act appropriately.
In
certain contexts they should practise
"love"
while
in
other contexts
"hate" is
acceptable.
Enxet
social organization should not be understood as a structure but
as a process,
as something that is being
continually created.
I
will consider
different
aspects of this
process through an examination of
kinship,
co-residence, marital relations,
"brideservice"
and
inter-community
contact, and
I
will
describe how
economic transactions are
key
elements
in the generation of
"loving"
social relations.
However,
self-centred practices
create many challenges to a
harmonious
community
life
and
I
will consider
how the
Enxet
strive to overcome them. Of
particular
interest
will
be demand
sharing which
responds,
in
part, to a strongly-held egalitarian ethic
but
can also provoke
disharmony
and
discomfort in
community
life. I
will also
discuss
commodity relations within
Enxet
communities and challenge the common assumption that money
is
necessarily
destructive
of
indigenous
social relations.
I
will conclude that the overriding goal of the Enxet is the attainment of
tranquillity in both their personal and social
lives. For the Enxet,
economic relations are
not about gaining material wealth
but
about
living
well with other people.
They
recognize
that personal affective comfort
is dependent on engendering tranquillity in
other people.
Therefore, the "emotion
words" they use to explain their social
behaviour
should not
be
regarded as merely referring to "feelings" but
as encompassing an aesthetics of social
behaviour.Through the food lens : the politics of everyday life in urban Burkina FasoDebevec, Lizahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/71172019-04-01T09:29:03Z2005-01-01T00:00:00ZThe
subject of the thesis is the everyday
life
of several
Muslim
and one
Christian
family
residing
in different
parts of
Bobo-Dioulasso, the second
largest town in
Burkina Faso,
situated
in the south west, on the axis
between Mali
and
Ivory Coast.
Through
ethnographic
descriptions
of
food
events
I
explore
larger issues
of
everyday existence
in
urban
West Africa. The joint
use of
`traditional'
and
`western'
foods
shows that the average
Burkinabe
shifts
between
several worlds
in
which s/he
feels
more or
less
comfortable.
One is the home,
where eating and other practices
are traditional and safe, the other the outside world, where one
is
always at risk of
the unknown.
At the same time the outside world
is
a space
invested
with
expectations, excitement and possibility of success.
I
explore the ways
in
which
people negotiate
between
the `traditional'
world, which they know
and understand,
and the `modern'
ways of
life, to which, while with
hesitation
and apprehension,
they aspire.
In
order to understand people's everyday actions,
I
analyse their
everyday
lives,
starting
from the home life
and everyday
feeding
practices, through
celebrations and rituals, and their relationship with and
ideas
about the outside world
through the media.
Finally, I
explore people's
ideas
about the future they aspire to,
both for themselves and
for their families.
2005-01-01T00:00:00ZDebevec, LizaThe
subject of the thesis is the everyday
life
of several
Muslim
and one
Christian
family
residing
in different
parts of
Bobo-Dioulasso, the second
largest town in
Burkina Faso,
situated
in the south west, on the axis
between Mali
and
Ivory Coast.
Through
ethnographic
descriptions
of
food
events
I
explore
larger issues
of
everyday existence
in
urban
West Africa. The joint
use of
`traditional'
and
`western'
foods
shows that the average
Burkinabe
shifts
between
several worlds
in
which s/he
feels
more or
less
comfortable.
One is the home,
where eating and other practices
are traditional and safe, the other the outside world, where one
is
always at risk of
the unknown.
At the same time the outside world
is
a space
invested
with
expectations, excitement and possibility of success.
I
explore the ways
in
which
people negotiate
between
the `traditional'
world, which they know
and understand,
and the `modern'
ways of
life, to which, while with
hesitation
and apprehension,
they aspire.
In
order to understand people's everyday actions,
I
analyse their
everyday
lives,
starting
from the home life
and everyday
feeding
practices, through
celebrations and rituals, and their relationship with and
ideas
about the outside world
through the media.
Finally, I
explore people's
ideas
about the future they aspire to,
both for themselves and
for their families.The social life of miraa : farming, trade, and consumption of a plant stimulant in KenyaCarrier, Neilhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/71082019-04-01T09:30:56Z2003-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis traces the paths and trajectories that one substance - the plant stimulant Catha
edulis (Forssk.), known in Kenya as 'miraa' - takes in the course of its 'social life' from
production, through exchange, to its points of consumption. The thesis attempts to draw out
the richness in this social life through an in-depth ethnographic examination of these
trajectories, emphasising in particular their socially-embedded nature. By following an
approach influenced by the volume The social life of things (Appadurai [ed.] 1986) the thesis
is able to tease out much of the significance the substance has for those people who animate
its social life. The trajectories covered vary greatly in range, from those involving local
consumption in the area in which it is grown - the Nyambene Hills district of Kenya - to
those that take it thousands of miles away to Europe and North America. The vast range of
the substance allows for the generation of many different meanings and associations, and
many of these are brought out over the course of the thesis. The trade of the substance (trade
that relies much on trust) and its consumption are seen as in many ways socially cohesive,
while in other respects socially divisive: while substances like miraa can build bridges, they
can also build fences. Of especial importance to the thesis is the character of Nicholas,
whose relationship with miraa demonstrates how individuals can take on board shared
meanings concerning a substance, whilst creating many new meanings of their own through
processes of convergence and divergence. The study addresses both the significance of miraa
and its social life for wider debates in anthropology and its significance within the lives of
farmers, traders, and consumers, and anyone engaged in debating its merits.
2003-01-01T00:00:00ZCarrier, NeilThis thesis traces the paths and trajectories that one substance - the plant stimulant Catha
edulis (Forssk.), known in Kenya as 'miraa' - takes in the course of its 'social life' from
production, through exchange, to its points of consumption. The thesis attempts to draw out
the richness in this social life through an in-depth ethnographic examination of these
trajectories, emphasising in particular their socially-embedded nature. By following an
approach influenced by the volume The social life of things (Appadurai [ed.] 1986) the thesis
is able to tease out much of the significance the substance has for those people who animate
its social life. The trajectories covered vary greatly in range, from those involving local
consumption in the area in which it is grown - the Nyambene Hills district of Kenya - to
those that take it thousands of miles away to Europe and North America. The vast range of
the substance allows for the generation of many different meanings and associations, and
many of these are brought out over the course of the thesis. The trade of the substance (trade
that relies much on trust) and its consumption are seen as in many ways socially cohesive,
while in other respects socially divisive: while substances like miraa can build bridges, they
can also build fences. Of especial importance to the thesis is the character of Nicholas,
whose relationship with miraa demonstrates how individuals can take on board shared
meanings concerning a substance, whilst creating many new meanings of their own through
processes of convergence and divergence. The study addresses both the significance of miraa
and its social life for wider debates in anthropology and its significance within the lives of
farmers, traders, and consumers, and anyone engaged in debating its merits.The foodpaths of Chawpirana people : an ethnography of living inbetweenness in the Bolivian AndesNell, Corneliahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/70482023-03-20T16:46:10Z2014-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the everyday lives of the people of Cabreca ethnographically. Cabreca is
an Andean hamlet in the chawpirana of Northern Potosí in Bolivia. The chawpirana is a zone
which lies in-between the highlands (puna) and the valleys. Chawpi is the Quechua word for
middle/centre, rana means zone. While much anthropological work has been carried out in
puna and valley, the chawpirana has so far been neglected. Through an ethnography from the
middle I consider what it means to live in this in-between position.
My analysis focuses on the everyday spheres of the home, childhood, agricultural tasks and
pastoralism, food and movement. The themes that emerge from my ethnography are local
Cabreca ways of learning and knowing; feeding, reciprocity and the maintenance of
relationships between humans, animals, plants and spirits; flexibility; and mobility. The latter
two demonstrate the distinctiveness of the chawpirana particularly well: Cabrequeños move
extensively within the zone as their fields lie in the surroundings of the hamlet. The flexibility
of their households is manifested through these movements.
This study is an ethnography which pays attention to detail and provides minute descriptions
of everyday activities in Cabreca. The emphasis on ethnographic detail is created in
interaction with the intimacy which developed between Cabrequeños and me during 13
months of participant-observation. While living in a Cabreca household I had access to the
daily activities and particularly to those which women typically carry out. My experience is
embedded into anthropological literature on dwelling, kinship, ways of knowing, work,
embodied practice, reciprocity, and sharing.
2014-01-01T00:00:00ZNell, CorneliaThis thesis explores the everyday lives of the people of Cabreca ethnographically. Cabreca is
an Andean hamlet in the chawpirana of Northern Potosí in Bolivia. The chawpirana is a zone
which lies in-between the highlands (puna) and the valleys. Chawpi is the Quechua word for
middle/centre, rana means zone. While much anthropological work has been carried out in
puna and valley, the chawpirana has so far been neglected. Through an ethnography from the
middle I consider what it means to live in this in-between position.
My analysis focuses on the everyday spheres of the home, childhood, agricultural tasks and
pastoralism, food and movement. The themes that emerge from my ethnography are local
Cabreca ways of learning and knowing; feeding, reciprocity and the maintenance of
relationships between humans, animals, plants and spirits; flexibility; and mobility. The latter
two demonstrate the distinctiveness of the chawpirana particularly well: Cabrequeños move
extensively within the zone as their fields lie in the surroundings of the hamlet. The flexibility
of their households is manifested through these movements.
This study is an ethnography which pays attention to detail and provides minute descriptions
of everyday activities in Cabreca. The emphasis on ethnographic detail is created in
interaction with the intimacy which developed between Cabrequeños and me during 13
months of participant-observation. While living in a Cabreca household I had access to the
daily activities and particularly to those which women typically carry out. My experience is
embedded into anthropological literature on dwelling, kinship, ways of knowing, work,
embodied practice, reciprocity, and sharing.Manioc beer and the Word of God : faces of the future in Makuma, EcuadorCova, Victorhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/70312019-04-01T09:30:01Z2015-01-01T00:00:00ZHow can anthropologists describe the relationship between Christian and Amazonian ontologies? Based on a 13 months-long fieldwork, this ethnography of the
Evangelical mission town of Makuma in lowland Ecuador describes the relationship
between the Shuar and North American missionaries. In Makuma “Christianity”
and “Shuar” both refer to ways of relating particularity to a universal but put different emphases either on the body or on belief, and on relation or on boundaries. I argue that these are constituted by “technologies of introjection of the future”. For
Shuar people, these technologies range from manioc beer to powerful hallucinogens
which serve to anchor a perceived chronic instability of Amazonian bodies. Shuar
Christians avoid using any of these, which complicates their participation in social
life. All the alternatives they have found revolve around the Bible. As another “technology of introjection of the future”, the Bible appears to Makuma Christians as a
text addressed to them personally by a God come from a future beyond the future to
help them live that future in the present. They translate the Bible into the Shuar language and document the world from the Bible’s perspective to stabilise the relationship between God, themselves, and Shuar people. Both “technologies of introjection
of the future” are distinct but can be made to work together. I present various forms
of cooperation between Shuar and missionaries (Bible translation, maintenance of a
hydroelectric powerplant) alongside attempts to articulate a new relationship
between the Shuar, God, and the Church that would bypass the missionaries (Islam,
adventism, or indigenous churches). These are judged by the Shuar for their effects
on kinship. I conclude the thesis with a more abstract definition of “technologies of
incorporation of the future” which enables their articulation with capitalism and colonialism and opens up broader comparative horizons.
2015-01-01T00:00:00ZCova, VictorHow can anthropologists describe the relationship between Christian and Amazonian ontologies? Based on a 13 months-long fieldwork, this ethnography of the
Evangelical mission town of Makuma in lowland Ecuador describes the relationship
between the Shuar and North American missionaries. In Makuma “Christianity”
and “Shuar” both refer to ways of relating particularity to a universal but put different emphases either on the body or on belief, and on relation or on boundaries. I argue that these are constituted by “technologies of introjection of the future”. For
Shuar people, these technologies range from manioc beer to powerful hallucinogens
which serve to anchor a perceived chronic instability of Amazonian bodies. Shuar
Christians avoid using any of these, which complicates their participation in social
life. All the alternatives they have found revolve around the Bible. As another “technology of introjection of the future”, the Bible appears to Makuma Christians as a
text addressed to them personally by a God come from a future beyond the future to
help them live that future in the present. They translate the Bible into the Shuar language and document the world from the Bible’s perspective to stabilise the relationship between God, themselves, and Shuar people. Both “technologies of introjection
of the future” are distinct but can be made to work together. I present various forms
of cooperation between Shuar and missionaries (Bible translation, maintenance of a
hydroelectric powerplant) alongside attempts to articulate a new relationship
between the Shuar, God, and the Church that would bypass the missionaries (Islam,
adventism, or indigenous churches). These are judged by the Shuar for their effects
on kinship. I conclude the thesis with a more abstract definition of “technologies of
incorporation of the future” which enables their articulation with capitalism and colonialism and opens up broader comparative horizons.Knowing best? : an ethnographic exploration of the politics and practices of an international NGO in SenegalNí Mhórdha, Máirehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/69302020-06-19T02:03:00Z2015-06-25T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the social and political relations of an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Senegal. NGOs and international development have been the subject of research from a number of different perspectives, including the politics (and anti-politics) of development, post-development, structural violence and the ‘everyday lives’ of NGO participants and workers (Ferguson 1990; Escobar 1995; Farmer 2004; Bornstein 2005; Hilhorst 2003). The present study builds on this scholarship through an ethnographic exploration of the networks of people involved with Tostan, an American NGO based in Senegal whose developmental objective is to engender social change among rural groups in Senegal (particularly those that practice female genital cutting), using a human rights education framework.
Through identification and scrutiny of the organisation’s macro- and micro-level social relations, I critically examine how ‘development’ operates as a cultural and political process. I focus analytically on conceptions of knowledge and ignorance, particularly the ways in which these constructions are acted upon and utilised by different actors within the organisation. I argue that, as an NGO (and thus a ‘moral actor,’ Guilhot 2005: 6) within the contemporary donor-driven development industry, a key preoccupation for Tostan as an organisation is the management of perception, or a concern for the ‘spectacle of development’ (Allen 2013). Flowing from this argument is the assertion that the activities carried out by actors at every level of the organisation to produce and re-produce particular narratives through strategic knowing and unknowing are as significant (if not more so) as the formal programmatic activities implemented by the organisation ‘on the ground.’
As David Mosse argues, development involves not only social work, but also the conceptual work of ‘enrolment, persuasion, agreement and argument that lies behind the consensus and coherence necessary to sustain authoritative narratives and networks for the continued support of policy’ (Mosse 2005: 34). As I argue here, NGO actors work to (re)produce, project and protect particular narratives, through the strategic exercise of knowledge and ignorance, in order to access or consolidate positions of power within the politics of aid. Drawing on critical theories of development and human rights (e.g. Sachs 1992; Escobar 1991, 1995; Guilhot 2005, inter alia), within a political context succinctly described by Ellen Foley (2010: 9) as ‘the neoliberalization of just about everything,’ I explore how actors across the organisation are linked in a web of cultural and political presuppositions, values, and motivations.
2015-06-25T00:00:00ZNí Mhórdha, MáireThis thesis explores the social and political relations of an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Senegal. NGOs and international development have been the subject of research from a number of different perspectives, including the politics (and anti-politics) of development, post-development, structural violence and the ‘everyday lives’ of NGO participants and workers (Ferguson 1990; Escobar 1995; Farmer 2004; Bornstein 2005; Hilhorst 2003). The present study builds on this scholarship through an ethnographic exploration of the networks of people involved with Tostan, an American NGO based in Senegal whose developmental objective is to engender social change among rural groups in Senegal (particularly those that practice female genital cutting), using a human rights education framework.
Through identification and scrutiny of the organisation’s macro- and micro-level social relations, I critically examine how ‘development’ operates as a cultural and political process. I focus analytically on conceptions of knowledge and ignorance, particularly the ways in which these constructions are acted upon and utilised by different actors within the organisation. I argue that, as an NGO (and thus a ‘moral actor,’ Guilhot 2005: 6) within the contemporary donor-driven development industry, a key preoccupation for Tostan as an organisation is the management of perception, or a concern for the ‘spectacle of development’ (Allen 2013). Flowing from this argument is the assertion that the activities carried out by actors at every level of the organisation to produce and re-produce particular narratives through strategic knowing and unknowing are as significant (if not more so) as the formal programmatic activities implemented by the organisation ‘on the ground.’
As David Mosse argues, development involves not only social work, but also the conceptual work of ‘enrolment, persuasion, agreement and argument that lies behind the consensus and coherence necessary to sustain authoritative narratives and networks for the continued support of policy’ (Mosse 2005: 34). As I argue here, NGO actors work to (re)produce, project and protect particular narratives, through the strategic exercise of knowledge and ignorance, in order to access or consolidate positions of power within the politics of aid. Drawing on critical theories of development and human rights (e.g. Sachs 1992; Escobar 1991, 1995; Guilhot 2005, inter alia), within a political context succinctly described by Ellen Foley (2010: 9) as ‘the neoliberalization of just about everything,’ I explore how actors across the organisation are linked in a web of cultural and political presuppositions, values, and motivations.Paranormal tourism in Edinburgh : storytelling, appropriating ghost culture and presenting an uncanny heritageHolzhauser, Elizabethhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/69222019-04-01T09:29:19Z2015-06-25T00:00:00ZThe paranormal industry in Edinburgh has become a thriving niche within the country’s tourist market. While ghost walks have been explored in anthropology from the perspective of spectacle, this thesis investigates and analyses the cultural framework which has furthered the success of the industry. Namely, the ways in which the paranormal industry have appropriated the beliefs and practices of an overarching ghost culture: a community of believers, investigators, mediums, and all those who actively attempt to engage with the paranormal.
The increased visibility of the paranormal within popular culture has spurred a wide interest in the unknown and unexplained. Ghost hunting television shows and the prevalence of ghost stories has inspired the desire for unique experiences, and for audiences to contextualise the supernatural within their own lives. The paranormal industry has grown to accommodate this intense, active enthusiasm for all things spectral, and belief has become a commodity.
This burgeoning fascination in ghosts has become an important aspect of how Scotland is sold as a destination. While commercial paranormal industries exist in other cities around the world, the historical perception of Scotland as other has created a precedent for the connection between Scottish national identity and the spectral. This thesis further investigates the ways in which the tourist industry continues to solidify the connection between Scottish heritage and the paranormal.
2015-06-25T00:00:00ZHolzhauser, ElizabethThe paranormal industry in Edinburgh has become a thriving niche within the country’s tourist market. While ghost walks have been explored in anthropology from the perspective of spectacle, this thesis investigates and analyses the cultural framework which has furthered the success of the industry. Namely, the ways in which the paranormal industry have appropriated the beliefs and practices of an overarching ghost culture: a community of believers, investigators, mediums, and all those who actively attempt to engage with the paranormal.
The increased visibility of the paranormal within popular culture has spurred a wide interest in the unknown and unexplained. Ghost hunting television shows and the prevalence of ghost stories has inspired the desire for unique experiences, and for audiences to contextualise the supernatural within their own lives. The paranormal industry has grown to accommodate this intense, active enthusiasm for all things spectral, and belief has become a commodity.
This burgeoning fascination in ghosts has become an important aspect of how Scotland is sold as a destination. While commercial paranormal industries exist in other cities around the world, the historical perception of Scotland as other has created a precedent for the connection between Scottish national identity and the spectral. This thesis further investigates the ways in which the tourist industry continues to solidify the connection between Scottish heritage and the paranormal.Working towards “a production of well-being” : an ethnography on craftsmanship among the Lulesámi in NorwayGustafsson, Annahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/65382019-07-01T10:04:36Z2015-06-25T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an ethnographic study of craftsmanship among the Lulesámi in Northern Norway. The study, which is based on an apprentice-style methodology, focuses in particular on the role and significance of making and wearing the gáppte, a characteristic Sámi dress. While the gáppte is often employed to visually define and distinguish the Sámi in relation to other people, my aim is to move beyond such a common interpretation and unfold the garment’s everyday aspects and explore how its production and use are interwoven with the Lulesámi’s emphasis and ongoing creation of personal and social well-being.
The chapters address, in their different ways, the three main themes of this study. The first is concerned with the various ways in which the gáppte and its use affect people’s sense of self and relations to others, and the factors influencing such diverse experiences. The second theme focuses on how the learning to make the garment, rather than involving a fixed set of skills, is based on an ongoing practical and sensuous engagement with the world. I demonstrate that novices not only learn the technical skills of producing a garment to be worn, but that they are also encouraged to develop certain social skills and virtues for living a good life. The third theme is constituted by an examination of the productive activities within the domestic sphere, which often go unnoticed as they cannot easily be seen or measured through tangible evidence, but which affirm and strengthen the making of a convivial society.
Through the analysis I draw and build on current anthropological debates on material culture by showing how craftsmanship is a self-transforming experience which encompasses a complete way of being, traversing and merging immaterial and material realms of life. I also wish to contribute to feminist debates by drawing attention to how the ‘personal’ and ‘domestic’ are intimately intertwined with larger historical, political and social processes.
2015-06-25T00:00:00ZGustafsson, AnnaThis thesis is an ethnographic study of craftsmanship among the Lulesámi in Northern Norway. The study, which is based on an apprentice-style methodology, focuses in particular on the role and significance of making and wearing the gáppte, a characteristic Sámi dress. While the gáppte is often employed to visually define and distinguish the Sámi in relation to other people, my aim is to move beyond such a common interpretation and unfold the garment’s everyday aspects and explore how its production and use are interwoven with the Lulesámi’s emphasis and ongoing creation of personal and social well-being.
The chapters address, in their different ways, the three main themes of this study. The first is concerned with the various ways in which the gáppte and its use affect people’s sense of self and relations to others, and the factors influencing such diverse experiences. The second theme focuses on how the learning to make the garment, rather than involving a fixed set of skills, is based on an ongoing practical and sensuous engagement with the world. I demonstrate that novices not only learn the technical skills of producing a garment to be worn, but that they are also encouraged to develop certain social skills and virtues for living a good life. The third theme is constituted by an examination of the productive activities within the domestic sphere, which often go unnoticed as they cannot easily be seen or measured through tangible evidence, but which affirm and strengthen the making of a convivial society.
Through the analysis I draw and build on current anthropological debates on material culture by showing how craftsmanship is a self-transforming experience which encompasses a complete way of being, traversing and merging immaterial and material realms of life. I also wish to contribute to feminist debates by drawing attention to how the ‘personal’ and ‘domestic’ are intimately intertwined with larger historical, political and social processes.Modes of association and differentiation in Mauritius : an account of identity in a situation of socio-cultural heterogeneityHills, Milshttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/64552019-07-01T10:18:08Z1999-01-01T00:00:00ZThis Thesis details the anthropological investigation of socio-cultural heterogeneity in Mauritius, a small island republic in the Indian Ocean. I introduce the island, its population, climate and other salient features in the Introduction, where I also reveal something of the author's intentions, interests and ideology.
Although Mauritius has been relatively infrequently written about by anthropologists or other social scientists, when Mauritian social diversity has been discussed it has been conducted on the presumption that difference is synonymous with division. Consequently, in Chapter 1, I develop a critique of this assumption, which has found its way into the texts and discourses of both sociologists and state bureaucrats. I collapse these two categories' products into one, by drawing upon Foucault's notion of 'governmentality', and critique widespread views of Multiculturalism as being founded on the alleged coevalness of difference and division. I also introduce my three main analytical tools: intersubjectivity, transcendence and creolization.
Chapter 2 portrays individuals' identity, agreeing that at times those Mauritians that I met did draw divisions between one another, but that this was far from predictable, nor universally practised. Chapter 3 continues this project, by focusing on specific forms of the expression of division, but again I highlight the unanticipated nature of division and difference. Chapter 4 further clouds the picture by noting that even where individuals might be thought to be unproblematically employing ethnic - or caste - based strategies in, for example, the workplace, the use of such tools was again unforseeable, and not always successful. Even where they were successful in securing advantage, there are wider costs not previously noted in the ethnographic record.
Chapter 5 is the culmination of my argument. Through a fine-grained portrayal of a number of ethnographic moments, I point up the unifying and shared practices which have hitherto been excerpted from ethnographic accounts of Mauritius (or other 'plural' societies). These unifying features are as relevant to my understanding of Mauritian society as divisions, I claim, and I reflect on the contrast between 'banal' unities and governmental notions of Multiculturalism.
The Conclusion draws together the threads of the Thesis and charts where it fits in terms of wider anthropological and political trends.
1999-01-01T00:00:00ZHills, MilsThis Thesis details the anthropological investigation of socio-cultural heterogeneity in Mauritius, a small island republic in the Indian Ocean. I introduce the island, its population, climate and other salient features in the Introduction, where I also reveal something of the author's intentions, interests and ideology.
Although Mauritius has been relatively infrequently written about by anthropologists or other social scientists, when Mauritian social diversity has been discussed it has been conducted on the presumption that difference is synonymous with division. Consequently, in Chapter 1, I develop a critique of this assumption, which has found its way into the texts and discourses of both sociologists and state bureaucrats. I collapse these two categories' products into one, by drawing upon Foucault's notion of 'governmentality', and critique widespread views of Multiculturalism as being founded on the alleged coevalness of difference and division. I also introduce my three main analytical tools: intersubjectivity, transcendence and creolization.
Chapter 2 portrays individuals' identity, agreeing that at times those Mauritians that I met did draw divisions between one another, but that this was far from predictable, nor universally practised. Chapter 3 continues this project, by focusing on specific forms of the expression of division, but again I highlight the unanticipated nature of division and difference. Chapter 4 further clouds the picture by noting that even where individuals might be thought to be unproblematically employing ethnic - or caste - based strategies in, for example, the workplace, the use of such tools was again unforseeable, and not always successful. Even where they were successful in securing advantage, there are wider costs not previously noted in the ethnographic record.
Chapter 5 is the culmination of my argument. Through a fine-grained portrayal of a number of ethnographic moments, I point up the unifying and shared practices which have hitherto been excerpted from ethnographic accounts of Mauritius (or other 'plural' societies). These unifying features are as relevant to my understanding of Mauritian society as divisions, I claim, and I reflect on the contrast between 'banal' unities and governmental notions of Multiculturalism.
The Conclusion draws together the threads of the Thesis and charts where it fits in terms of wider anthropological and political trends.Las condenadas : an ethnography of sexuality and violence in BoliviaBorda Niño, Adriana Carolinahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/62782021-04-15T02:07:25Z2014-12-18T00:00:00ZThis is an ethnographic study of discourses and experiences concerning sexual
exchanges among kin “who are too closely related to marry each other” (OED), or what
in lay language is called “incest”. I investigate the ways in which a certain kind of
incest, that between older men and younger women, primarily from different
generations, is experienced by women of predominantly rural origin, who have been
hospitalized in the major public psychiatric hospital in Bolivia, in Sucre. In this sense, this
research is as much a study of incest as it is of psychiatric institutionalization. These
experiences will be considered in the context of a wider field of ethnic, class and gender
discourses that are produced by medical staff, community organizations, as well as
national judicial institutions.
The category of 'incest' is problematized in terms of how kinship is constructed,
not only as a series of dynamic discourses (as practices whose effect is the production of
events) but also as mobile experiences, however socially regulated. With this in mind, I
present an account of Andean concepts and treatment of incest, as well as of legal and
medical categories. Specifically, I focus on the play between discourses in the context
of the psychiatric hospital, the judicial court and the communities of selected inmates. I
show how the inmates’ experiences of intergenerational incest and sexual violence in
general are related to the dominant ethnic, class and gender narratives produced by
medical staff, community organizations, and judicial institutions.
2014-12-18T00:00:00ZBorda Niño, Adriana CarolinaThis is an ethnographic study of discourses and experiences concerning sexual
exchanges among kin “who are too closely related to marry each other” (OED), or what
in lay language is called “incest”. I investigate the ways in which a certain kind of
incest, that between older men and younger women, primarily from different
generations, is experienced by women of predominantly rural origin, who have been
hospitalized in the major public psychiatric hospital in Bolivia, in Sucre. In this sense, this
research is as much a study of incest as it is of psychiatric institutionalization. These
experiences will be considered in the context of a wider field of ethnic, class and gender
discourses that are produced by medical staff, community organizations, as well as
national judicial institutions.
The category of 'incest' is problematized in terms of how kinship is constructed,
not only as a series of dynamic discourses (as practices whose effect is the production of
events) but also as mobile experiences, however socially regulated. With this in mind, I
present an account of Andean concepts and treatment of incest, as well as of legal and
medical categories. Specifically, I focus on the play between discourses in the context
of the psychiatric hospital, the judicial court and the communities of selected inmates. I
show how the inmates’ experiences of intergenerational incest and sexual violence in
general are related to the dominant ethnic, class and gender narratives produced by
medical staff, community organizations, and judicial institutions.Construction and representation of identities in football museums: a comparative studyYang, Jinghttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/62752023-06-20T02:01:09Z2015-06-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis aims at providing a cross-cultural study of how football museums represent and construct identities, both collective and personal. The research is based on a multi-sited ethnography at selected football museums in the UK, Germany, and China, employing participant observation, photographic recording and online research methods. This investigation sharpens an anthropological awareness of constructions of multiple layered identities by examining football museums’ exhibiting practices and activity programmes, as well as their built environments and cultural settings. The research also offers a perspective on museum visitors, who consume football museums with diverse personal and collective identity claims. Looking into the largely under-explored terrain of football museums, this research joins continuing anthropological efforts to understand identity work while also exploring continuing tensions inherent in a marriage between museums and football. The thesis contributes to the research field of football/sports museums with an ethnographic emphasis and a cross-cultural range.
2015-06-01T00:00:00ZYang, JingThis thesis aims at providing a cross-cultural study of how football museums represent and construct identities, both collective and personal. The research is based on a multi-sited ethnography at selected football museums in the UK, Germany, and China, employing participant observation, photographic recording and online research methods. This investigation sharpens an anthropological awareness of constructions of multiple layered identities by examining football museums’ exhibiting practices and activity programmes, as well as their built environments and cultural settings. The research also offers a perspective on museum visitors, who consume football museums with diverse personal and collective identity claims. Looking into the largely under-explored terrain of football museums, this research joins continuing anthropological efforts to understand identity work while also exploring continuing tensions inherent in a marriage between museums and football. The thesis contributes to the research field of football/sports museums with an ethnographic emphasis and a cross-cultural range.Specialist knowledge practices of craftsmen and clerics in SenegalDilley, Roy Martinhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/57902023-04-18T09:39:24Z2009-02-01T00:00:00ZThis article examines the specialized knowledge practices of two sets of culturally recognized ‘experts’ in Senegal: Islamic clerics and craftsmen. Their respective bodies of knowledge are often regarded as being in opposition, and in some respects antithetical, to one another. The aim of this article is to examine this claim by means of an investigation of how knowledge is conceived by each party. The analysis attempts to expose local epistemologies, which are deduced from an investigation of ‘expert’ knowledge practices and indigenous claims to knowledge. The social processes of knowledge acquisition and transmission are also examined with reference to the idea of initiatory learning. It is in these areas that commonalities between the bodies of knowledge and sets of knowledge practices are to be found. Yet, despite parallels between the epistemologies of both bodies of expertise and between their respective modes of knowledge transmission, the social consequences of ‘expertise’ are different in each case. The hierarchical relations of power that inform the articulation of the dominant clerics with marginalized craftsmen groups serve to profile ‘expertise’ in different ways, each one implying its own sense of authority and social range of legitimacy.
Special Issue: Knowledge in Practice: Expertise and the Transmission of Knowledge. Guest Editor: Kai Kresse and Trevor H. J. Marchand
2009-02-01T00:00:00ZDilley, Roy MartinThis article examines the specialized knowledge practices of two sets of culturally recognized ‘experts’ in Senegal: Islamic clerics and craftsmen. Their respective bodies of knowledge are often regarded as being in opposition, and in some respects antithetical, to one another. The aim of this article is to examine this claim by means of an investigation of how knowledge is conceived by each party. The analysis attempts to expose local epistemologies, which are deduced from an investigation of ‘expert’ knowledge practices and indigenous claims to knowledge. The social processes of knowledge acquisition and transmission are also examined with reference to the idea of initiatory learning. It is in these areas that commonalities between the bodies of knowledge and sets of knowledge practices are to be found. Yet, despite parallels between the epistemologies of both bodies of expertise and between their respective modes of knowledge transmission, the social consequences of ‘expertise’ are different in each case. The hierarchical relations of power that inform the articulation of the dominant clerics with marginalized craftsmen groups serve to profile ‘expertise’ in different ways, each one implying its own sense of authority and social range of legitimacy.The liberal treatment of difference : an untimely meditation on culture and civilizationRapport, Nigel Julianhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/52172023-04-18T09:44:38Z2011-10-01T00:00:00ZJohn Stuart Mill’s liberal vision included a notion of “civil advancement” whereby the free expression of a diversity of opinion would result not only in an initial collision of difference but also in an eventual consolidation as truth. The work of this article is to explore the ways and extents in which such liberalism can translate into a cosmopolitan anthropology. Is toleration of difference the appropriate anthropological ethic, or can one hypothesize a liberal “magnanimous” overcoming of difference? In a wide-ranging discussion, the voice of Mill is juxtaposed against those of C. P. Snow, Ernest Gellner, Stevie Smith, and Karl Popper. Much commentary would suggest that liberalism is passé. A political context dominated by renascent particularisms, militant religions, and resurgent ethnicities spells the collapse, it is told, of any Enlightenment project of liberal-humanist universalism. “Cultures are not options.” Notwithstanding, the argument is made here that as “opinion” grades into “knowledge,” so “culture” grades into “civilization” and local community (polis) into global society (cosmos). Difference may become a step along the way to a recognition of universal human truth.
2011-10-01T00:00:00ZRapport, Nigel JulianJohn Stuart Mill’s liberal vision included a notion of “civil advancement” whereby the free expression of a diversity of opinion would result not only in an initial collision of difference but also in an eventual consolidation as truth. The work of this article is to explore the ways and extents in which such liberalism can translate into a cosmopolitan anthropology. Is toleration of difference the appropriate anthropological ethic, or can one hypothesize a liberal “magnanimous” overcoming of difference? In a wide-ranging discussion, the voice of Mill is juxtaposed against those of C. P. Snow, Ernest Gellner, Stevie Smith, and Karl Popper. Much commentary would suggest that liberalism is passé. A political context dominated by renascent particularisms, militant religions, and resurgent ethnicities spells the collapse, it is told, of any Enlightenment project of liberal-humanist universalism. “Cultures are not options.” Notwithstanding, the argument is made here that as “opinion” grades into “knowledge,” so “culture” grades into “civilization” and local community (polis) into global society (cosmos). Difference may become a step along the way to a recognition of universal human truth.Rulers and rascals : the politics of gold mining in Mongolian Qing historyHigh, MetteSchlesinger, Jonathanhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/49132023-04-18T09:52:12Z2010-01-01T00:00:00ZThis article examines the politics of gold mining in the Mongolian cultural region during the Qing period and today. By drawing on archival material and accounts by travellers of the period, the authors situate the current mining boom within its greater historical context. Since the exploration of gold has been surrounded by enduring notions of exclusivity and purity, the article shows how mining for gold has historically been closely related to Mongolian practices of political rulership. By examining the current mining boom in Mongolia from a broader historical perspective, the article argues that this extractive economy involves much more than a search for profit.
M1 - Article
2010-01-01T00:00:00ZHigh, MetteSchlesinger, JonathanThis article examines the politics of gold mining in the Mongolian cultural region during the Qing period and today. By drawing on archival material and accounts by travellers of the period, the authors situate the current mining boom within its greater historical context. Since the exploration of gold has been surrounded by enduring notions of exclusivity and purity, the article shows how mining for gold has historically been closely related to Mongolian practices of political rulership. By examining the current mining boom in Mongolia from a broader historical perspective, the article argues that this extractive economy involves much more than a search for profit.Renaissance of the lost Leco : ethnohistory of the Bolivian foothills from Apolobamba to LarecajaFerrié, Francishttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/48672019-04-01T09:29:47Z2014-06-26T00:00:00ZThe Leco from North of La Paz were considered to have disappeared by the end of the 20th century; however in 1997, two groups of Leco re-emerged independently from each other, one in Larecaja and one in Apolo. In the former the claim was less violent than in the latter, where Quechua peasants share language, culture and kinship, and refuse to recognize the land rights and the identity of their “Indigenous Leco” neighbours.
The thesis aims to understand ethnohistorically both resurgences, and tries to go beyond essentialism to understand the heterogeneous melting pot from where the Apoleños come.
Apolobamba, because it connects highlands and lowlands, received Andean influences (puquina, aymara and quechua) early on. Its inhabitants, the Chuncho of the Incas then the Spaniards, show hybrid ethnolinguistic and socio-cultural features. The ethnic diversity was reduced in the 18th century Franciscan Missions, where the ethnolinguistic border between an Andean South and the “savages” of the North was drawn at the Tuichi river. The liberal Republican period, with the construction of a national identity, once again shrank regional diversity and increased “Andeanization”. Apolistas and then Apoleños emerged from these interethnic mixes defined more geographically than ethnically.
The Leco revival happens in an auspicious national and international context, but the Leco language was still spoken two or three generations ago on the Mapiri’s banks. It raises the question of social transformation and continuity: are we dealing with a case of acculturation, ethnogenesis, camouflage or resistance?
2014-06-26T00:00:00ZFerrié, FrancisThe Leco from North of La Paz were considered to have disappeared by the end of the 20th century; however in 1997, two groups of Leco re-emerged independently from each other, one in Larecaja and one in Apolo. In the former the claim was less violent than in the latter, where Quechua peasants share language, culture and kinship, and refuse to recognize the land rights and the identity of their “Indigenous Leco” neighbours.
The thesis aims to understand ethnohistorically both resurgences, and tries to go beyond essentialism to understand the heterogeneous melting pot from where the Apoleños come.
Apolobamba, because it connects highlands and lowlands, received Andean influences (puquina, aymara and quechua) early on. Its inhabitants, the Chuncho of the Incas then the Spaniards, show hybrid ethnolinguistic and socio-cultural features. The ethnic diversity was reduced in the 18th century Franciscan Missions, where the ethnolinguistic border between an Andean South and the “savages” of the North was drawn at the Tuichi river. The liberal Republican period, with the construction of a national identity, once again shrank regional diversity and increased “Andeanization”. Apolistas and then Apoleños emerged from these interethnic mixes defined more geographically than ethnically.
The Leco revival happens in an auspicious national and international context, but the Leco language was still spoken two or three generations ago on the Mapiri’s banks. It raises the question of social transformation and continuity: are we dealing with a case of acculturation, ethnogenesis, camouflage or resistance?Through a looking glass: reflected experience in São Tomé and PrincipéMcWhinnie, Alexanderhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/42882019-04-01T09:28:39Z2013-11-30T00:00:00ZThe thesis sets out to examine how significant experience is sought, recognised and communicated in São Tomé and Principé. It notes the outcomes that are frequently searched for and describes the 'location' of significant experience in social interaction. It finds that experience which is personalised, qualitative and direct is preferred to that which is thought about. It describes how people adopt strategies that will result in achieving desired outcomes in social responses and material security and it notes that assertions made to achieve these ends can be seen to be associated with conditions of material life lived and utilise signs that reflect social differences locally and globally. It notes that material differences observed can be explained in social terms and social differences can be formed through showing material differences.
The study examines ways in which the physical properties of the island and the cultural artifacts still present from the past have an ongoing influence in forming the content, timing and quality of personal and social actions. It notes how the development of personal social connections are associated with material obligations and both how social connections can be developed for this end and how material obligations enacted can confirm social connections.
The study notes the seeming inevitability of interaction to form personal social connections and the need thus for maintenance of 'social distance' to enable impersonal commercial monetised exchange to occur. It notes how such distance can be normatively asserted on others and how some utilise an awareness of such social 'architecture' to form obligations from which they may gain materially.
The study found that many people have clear and well formed ideas as to the qualities and interests of foreigners. Yet foreigners can also be evaluated by the signs and actions they show. The study concludes that an 'architecture' of significant experience exists for many in the reflected recognition of others and that much importance is placed in particular personalised social relations. The important economic consequences of this are briefly outlined.
2013-11-30T00:00:00ZMcWhinnie, AlexanderThe thesis sets out to examine how significant experience is sought, recognised and communicated in São Tomé and Principé. It notes the outcomes that are frequently searched for and describes the 'location' of significant experience in social interaction. It finds that experience which is personalised, qualitative and direct is preferred to that which is thought about. It describes how people adopt strategies that will result in achieving desired outcomes in social responses and material security and it notes that assertions made to achieve these ends can be seen to be associated with conditions of material life lived and utilise signs that reflect social differences locally and globally. It notes that material differences observed can be explained in social terms and social differences can be formed through showing material differences.
The study examines ways in which the physical properties of the island and the cultural artifacts still present from the past have an ongoing influence in forming the content, timing and quality of personal and social actions. It notes how the development of personal social connections are associated with material obligations and both how social connections can be developed for this end and how material obligations enacted can confirm social connections.
The study notes the seeming inevitability of interaction to form personal social connections and the need thus for maintenance of 'social distance' to enable impersonal commercial monetised exchange to occur. It notes how such distance can be normatively asserted on others and how some utilise an awareness of such social 'architecture' to form obligations from which they may gain materially.
The study found that many people have clear and well formed ideas as to the qualities and interests of foreigners. Yet foreigners can also be evaluated by the signs and actions they show. The study concludes that an 'architecture' of significant experience exists for many in the reflected recognition of others and that much importance is placed in particular personalised social relations. The important economic consequences of this are briefly outlined.The social lives of UK fashion blogsEldred, Susan Ahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/42072019-04-01T09:31:16Z2013-11-30T00:00:00ZThis thesis is the result of twenty-five months of ethnographic fieldwork, both online and offline, in the United Kingdom working with London-based fashion bloggers. It aims to examine the ways that bloggers negotiate between style and identity through the presentation of self in online environments, more specifically fashion blogs and corresponding social media websites, as well as offline spaces, including London Fashion Week, industry events, and regular social interactions with other bloggers and blog readers. It also address the relationships between bloggers and members of the fashion industry, as the industry struggles to define a place for them. Furthermore, this thesis hopes to contribute to growing debates regarding the potentiality of media anthropology to influence the creation and production of ethnographic texts.
2013-11-30T00:00:00ZEldred, Susan AThis thesis is the result of twenty-five months of ethnographic fieldwork, both online and offline, in the United Kingdom working with London-based fashion bloggers. It aims to examine the ways that bloggers negotiate between style and identity through the presentation of self in online environments, more specifically fashion blogs and corresponding social media websites, as well as offline spaces, including London Fashion Week, industry events, and regular social interactions with other bloggers and blog readers. It also address the relationships between bloggers and members of the fashion industry, as the industry struggles to define a place for them. Furthermore, this thesis hopes to contribute to growing debates regarding the potentiality of media anthropology to influence the creation and production of ethnographic texts.The victims of a sorted life : ageing and caregiving in an American retirement communityKao, Philip Y.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/39802019-07-01T10:07:02Z2013-07-30T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an ethnographic analysis of a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in the American Midwest. I examine salient aspects of American culture, and how persons in the American Midwest understand relationships and themselves in the context of eldercare, and particularly, how issues of personhood and kinship are conceptualised in a long-term care facility. Rather than focusing exclusively on just the labour of caregivers, or how the residents in the CCRC receive care, my study is grounded in the interaction and relations that obtain during specific regimes of caregiving. Because the exigencies of ageing are met with certain exigencies of care, this study touches upon three dominant themes that make sense of the tensions that emerge when principles and practices do not square up. The first theme deals with how ageing and care are constituted, and made relational to one other. Secondly, I demonstrate that in the CCRC where I conducted fieldwork, ageing is constructed as a process and institutionalised, resulting in a distinctive way in which space and time are dealt with and unravelled from their inextricability. The resulting consequences affect not just the older residents and the CCRC staff, but also impacts how caregiving takes on specific forms and meanings. Thirdly, I investigate how formal (professional) caregivers and care receivers produce a type of social relation, which cannot be understood alone by conventional studies of kinship and economic relations. Ultimately, this thesis sets the frame for future debate on the ontological commitments involved in eldercare, and how the segregation of care and of the elderly in society relate to wider social norms regarding ageing and marginality.
2013-07-30T00:00:00ZKao, Philip Y.This thesis is an ethnographic analysis of a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) in the American Midwest. I examine salient aspects of American culture, and how persons in the American Midwest understand relationships and themselves in the context of eldercare, and particularly, how issues of personhood and kinship are conceptualised in a long-term care facility. Rather than focusing exclusively on just the labour of caregivers, or how the residents in the CCRC receive care, my study is grounded in the interaction and relations that obtain during specific regimes of caregiving. Because the exigencies of ageing are met with certain exigencies of care, this study touches upon three dominant themes that make sense of the tensions that emerge when principles and practices do not square up. The first theme deals with how ageing and care are constituted, and made relational to one other. Secondly, I demonstrate that in the CCRC where I conducted fieldwork, ageing is constructed as a process and institutionalised, resulting in a distinctive way in which space and time are dealt with and unravelled from their inextricability. The resulting consequences affect not just the older residents and the CCRC staff, but also impacts how caregiving takes on specific forms and meanings. Thirdly, I investigate how formal (professional) caregivers and care receivers produce a type of social relation, which cannot be understood alone by conventional studies of kinship and economic relations. Ultimately, this thesis sets the frame for future debate on the ontological commitments involved in eldercare, and how the segregation of care and of the elderly in society relate to wider social norms regarding ageing and marginality.Traditional authority revisited : ancestors, development and an alternative tempo-morality in Ho, GhanaSwan, Eileadhhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/36362019-11-18T17:17:38Z2012-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis endeavours to re-theorise traditional authority through a consideration of chieftaincy within Ghana’s Asogli Traditional Area. Chiefs’ increasing activity in the implementation of development projects, has piqued anthropological interest in traditional
authority once more. Recent anthropological analyses have focused on chiefs’ proficiency
in mediating between tradition and modernity, and in particular, their ability to use their traditional past as a means towards the establishment of a modern and developed present and future. The ancestors, while a central feature of colonial studies of traditional authority, remain notably absent within these recent post-colonial studies.
However, my own research suggests that traditional authorities were recognised by
people as credible development leaders precisely because their authority was ancestral. I argue that tradition – by way of the ancestors – provided an alternative temporal mode through which people could realistically envisage development and future well-being. Because of their very ontological ground as once living, historical kins-people, I contend that the ancestors were able to fashion a tradition which was not temporally opposed to the present or the future, and a tradition whose authenticity was not dependent upon the
eclipsing of the colonial and European relations which equally constituted it.
Secondly, this thesis argues that development and future well-being was also
conceived of as a moral project and one which the traditional authorities – as caretakers of ancestral morality – were best placed to oversee. Traditional morality was based upon the ideal relationship of care and respect between ancestors and their descendants. As such, chiefs and elders were increasingly valued as leaders capable of articulating and resolving tensions between freedom and obligation, accumulation and distribution. It was in the funerary context, where ancestors and morality were made, that the traditional authorities,
as the ‘police of death’, revealed both the honour and burden of traditional authority.
I focus primarily on the views and practices of the traditional authorities themselves
and those for whom the ‘traditional complex’ resonated most strongly. Theoretically, I
refuse to take Asogli tradition less seriously because it was discredited by some
anthropologists as a modern invention. I also resist the temptation to question appearances by attributing to Asogli Traditional Authority the status of an alternative modernity. By thinking through the ancestors, this thesis seeks to engage with tradition rather than ‘tradition’, but without fully subscribing to the recent ‘ontological turn’ in anthropology.
2012-01-01T00:00:00ZSwan, EileadhThis thesis endeavours to re-theorise traditional authority through a consideration of chieftaincy within Ghana’s Asogli Traditional Area. Chiefs’ increasing activity in the implementation of development projects, has piqued anthropological interest in traditional
authority once more. Recent anthropological analyses have focused on chiefs’ proficiency
in mediating between tradition and modernity, and in particular, their ability to use their traditional past as a means towards the establishment of a modern and developed present and future. The ancestors, while a central feature of colonial studies of traditional authority, remain notably absent within these recent post-colonial studies.
However, my own research suggests that traditional authorities were recognised by
people as credible development leaders precisely because their authority was ancestral. I argue that tradition – by way of the ancestors – provided an alternative temporal mode through which people could realistically envisage development and future well-being. Because of their very ontological ground as once living, historical kins-people, I contend that the ancestors were able to fashion a tradition which was not temporally opposed to the present or the future, and a tradition whose authenticity was not dependent upon the
eclipsing of the colonial and European relations which equally constituted it.
Secondly, this thesis argues that development and future well-being was also
conceived of as a moral project and one which the traditional authorities – as caretakers of ancestral morality – were best placed to oversee. Traditional morality was based upon the ideal relationship of care and respect between ancestors and their descendants. As such, chiefs and elders were increasingly valued as leaders capable of articulating and resolving tensions between freedom and obligation, accumulation and distribution. It was in the funerary context, where ancestors and morality were made, that the traditional authorities,
as the ‘police of death’, revealed both the honour and burden of traditional authority.
I focus primarily on the views and practices of the traditional authorities themselves
and those for whom the ‘traditional complex’ resonated most strongly. Theoretically, I
refuse to take Asogli tradition less seriously because it was discredited by some
anthropologists as a modern invention. I also resist the temptation to question appearances by attributing to Asogli Traditional Authority the status of an alternative modernity. By thinking through the ancestors, this thesis seeks to engage with tradition rather than ‘tradition’, but without fully subscribing to the recent ‘ontological turn’ in anthropology.The subversion of everyday life : an anthropological study of radical political practices : the Greek revolt of December 2008Kallianos, Ioannishttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/35452023-07-19T07:56:29Z2012-11-30T00:00:00Z2012-11-30T00:00:00ZKallianos, IoannisIn and around Beijing with Mr Yang and others : space, modernisation and social interactionYang, Qingqinghttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/34552020-03-31T09:02:43Z2013-06-01T00:00:00ZThe aim of my PhD project has been to understand how Hutong residents’ ideas about living space have been different from those living in the high-rise compound and how their concept of living space has been changed by both internal and external factors, meaning additional affiliated functions and governmental city-planning.
I conducted my fieldwork in Beijing between July 2009 and September 2012: fourteen months in total, interspersed with trips to St. Andrews. I spent ten months from July 2009 to May 2010 living in a Hutong called Xingfu Street (the word translates as ‘happiness’). Then I moved into a high-rise apartment outside the inner city, called Suojiafen Compound, for a further four months.
This study concerns space in the contemporary city of Beijing: how space is humanly built and transformed, classified and differentiated, and most importantly how space is perceived and experienced.
In the end I have developed the concept “overlapped” space as a way to detect the “personality” of space in both Hutong and high-rise apartment: how they differentiated from each other and how they have been transformed in different way by the residents inside.
2013-06-01T00:00:00ZYang, QingqingThe aim of my PhD project has been to understand how Hutong residents’ ideas about living space have been different from those living in the high-rise compound and how their concept of living space has been changed by both internal and external factors, meaning additional affiliated functions and governmental city-planning.
I conducted my fieldwork in Beijing between July 2009 and September 2012: fourteen months in total, interspersed with trips to St. Andrews. I spent ten months from July 2009 to May 2010 living in a Hutong called Xingfu Street (the word translates as ‘happiness’). Then I moved into a high-rise apartment outside the inner city, called Suojiafen Compound, for a further four months.
This study concerns space in the contemporary city of Beijing: how space is humanly built and transformed, classified and differentiated, and most importantly how space is perceived and experienced.
In the end I have developed the concept “overlapped” space as a way to detect the “personality” of space in both Hutong and high-rise apartment: how they differentiated from each other and how they have been transformed in different way by the residents inside.Nyungar wiring boodja : Aboriginality in urban AustraliaHemmers, Carinahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/34482021-01-12T13:34:34Z2012-11-30T00:00:00ZThe present thesis examines the themes of ‘shared history,’ ‘place-making,’ and ‘reconciliation’ to assess how these come together in the establishment of an Aboriginal identity in Perth, Western Australia. Focusing on individuals who do not represent the common stereotypes associated with Aboriginal Australians, it will be demonstrated that these individuals are forced into an in-between place where they have to continually negotiate what Aboriginality means in the twenty-first century. Taking on this responsibility they become mediators, stressing a ‘shared history’ in order to create a place for themselves in the non-Aboriginal landscape and to advance reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia by fighting the dominant discourse from within.
Beginning with the State and Government’s Native Title appeal premiss that Nyungar never existed, this thesis will examine this claim by first presenting an account of the history of southwest Western Australia to establish the place Aboriginal people have been forced into by the colonists during early settlement, and the processes of which extend into the present day. From there on in the focus will be on individual Aboriginal people and their careers and businesses, examining how they attempt to redefine what is perceived and accepted as Aboriginality through different interaction and mediation ‘tactics’ with non-Aboriginal Australians. Finally, this thesis will take a closer look at the reconciliation movement in Australia and the people involved in it. It will determine different approaches to reconciliation and assess their possibility and meaning for the construction of a twenty-first century Aboriginal identity.
The thesis will conclude that although Nyungar are forced into the dominant discourse, their resistance from within credits a new kind of Aboriginality that is just as valid as the ‘traditional’ and ‘authentic’ Aboriginality imagined by non-Aboriginal Australia.
2012-11-30T00:00:00ZHemmers, CarinaThe present thesis examines the themes of ‘shared history,’ ‘place-making,’ and ‘reconciliation’ to assess how these come together in the establishment of an Aboriginal identity in Perth, Western Australia. Focusing on individuals who do not represent the common stereotypes associated with Aboriginal Australians, it will be demonstrated that these individuals are forced into an in-between place where they have to continually negotiate what Aboriginality means in the twenty-first century. Taking on this responsibility they become mediators, stressing a ‘shared history’ in order to create a place for themselves in the non-Aboriginal landscape and to advance reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia by fighting the dominant discourse from within.
Beginning with the State and Government’s Native Title appeal premiss that Nyungar never existed, this thesis will examine this claim by first presenting an account of the history of southwest Western Australia to establish the place Aboriginal people have been forced into by the colonists during early settlement, and the processes of which extend into the present day. From there on in the focus will be on individual Aboriginal people and their careers and businesses, examining how they attempt to redefine what is perceived and accepted as Aboriginality through different interaction and mediation ‘tactics’ with non-Aboriginal Australians. Finally, this thesis will take a closer look at the reconciliation movement in Australia and the people involved in it. It will determine different approaches to reconciliation and assess their possibility and meaning for the construction of a twenty-first century Aboriginal identity.
The thesis will conclude that although Nyungar are forced into the dominant discourse, their resistance from within credits a new kind of Aboriginality that is just as valid as the ‘traditional’ and ‘authentic’ Aboriginality imagined by non-Aboriginal Australia.Transient observations : the textualizing of St Helena through five hundred years of colonial discourseSchulenburg, Alexander Hugohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/34192019-04-01T09:28:59Z1999-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the textualizing of the South Atlantic island of St Helena (a
British Overseas Territory) through an analysis of the relationship between
colonizing practices and the changing representations of the island and its
inhabitants in a range of colonial 'texts', including historiography, travel writing,
government papers, creative writing, and the fine arts.
Part I situates this thesis within a critical engagement with post-colonial
theory and colonial discourse analysis primarily, as well as with the recent
'linguistic turn' in anthropology and history. In place of post-colonialism's rather
monolithic approach to colonial experiences, I argue for a localised approach to
colonisation, which takes greater account of colonial praxis and of the continuous
re-negotiation and re-constitution of particular colonial situations.
Part II focuses on a number of literary issues by reviewing St Helena's
historiography and literature, and by investigating the range of narrative tropes
employed (largely by travellers) in the textualizing of St Helena, in particular
with respect to recurrent imaginings of the island in terms of an earthly Eden.
Part III examines the nature of colonial 'possession' by tracing the island's
gradual appropriation by the Portuguese, Dutch and English in the sixteenth and
early seventeenth century and the settlement policies pursued by the English
East India Company in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century.
Part IV provides an account of the changing perceptions, by visitors and
colonial officials alike, of the character of the island's inhabitants (from the late
eighteenth to the early twentieth century) and assesses the influence that these
perceptions have had on the administration of the island and the political status of
its inhabitants (in the mid- to late twentieth century).
Part V, the conclusion, reviews the principal arguments of my thesis by
addressing the political implications of post-colonial theory and of my own
research, while also indicating avenues for further research.
A localised and detailed exploration of colonial discourse over a period of
nearly five hundred years, and a close analysis of a consequently wide range of
colonial 'texts', has confirmed that although colonising practices and
representations are far from monolithic, in the case of St Helena their continuities
are of as much significance as their discontinuities.
1999-01-01T00:00:00ZSchulenburg, Alexander HugoThis thesis explores the textualizing of the South Atlantic island of St Helena (a
British Overseas Territory) through an analysis of the relationship between
colonizing practices and the changing representations of the island and its
inhabitants in a range of colonial 'texts', including historiography, travel writing,
government papers, creative writing, and the fine arts.
Part I situates this thesis within a critical engagement with post-colonial
theory and colonial discourse analysis primarily, as well as with the recent
'linguistic turn' in anthropology and history. In place of post-colonialism's rather
monolithic approach to colonial experiences, I argue for a localised approach to
colonisation, which takes greater account of colonial praxis and of the continuous
re-negotiation and re-constitution of particular colonial situations.
Part II focuses on a number of literary issues by reviewing St Helena's
historiography and literature, and by investigating the range of narrative tropes
employed (largely by travellers) in the textualizing of St Helena, in particular
with respect to recurrent imaginings of the island in terms of an earthly Eden.
Part III examines the nature of colonial 'possession' by tracing the island's
gradual appropriation by the Portuguese, Dutch and English in the sixteenth and
early seventeenth century and the settlement policies pursued by the English
East India Company in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century.
Part IV provides an account of the changing perceptions, by visitors and
colonial officials alike, of the character of the island's inhabitants (from the late
eighteenth to the early twentieth century) and assesses the influence that these
perceptions have had on the administration of the island and the political status of
its inhabitants (in the mid- to late twentieth century).
Part V, the conclusion, reviews the principal arguments of my thesis by
addressing the political implications of post-colonial theory and of my own
research, while also indicating avenues for further research.
A localised and detailed exploration of colonial discourse over a period of
nearly five hundred years, and a close analysis of a consequently wide range of
colonial 'texts', has confirmed that although colonising practices and
representations are far from monolithic, in the case of St Helena their continuities
are of as much significance as their discontinuities.Locations of envy : an ethnography of Aguabuena pottersCastellanos Montes, Danielahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/34042019-04-01T09:28:38Z2012-12-04T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an anthropological exploration of the envy of Aguabuena people, a small rural community of potters in the village of Ráquira, in the Boyacá region of Andean Colombia. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork among these potters, I propose an understanding of envy in Aguabuena as an existential experience, shaping relationships between the self and others in the world, crosscutting metaphysical and physical spheres, and balancing between corrosive and more empathetic ways of co-existence. Disclosing the multipresence of envy in Aguabuena’s world, its effects on people (including the ethnographer), and the way envy is embodied, performed, reciprocated and circumvented by the potters, I locate envy in various contexts where it is said to be manifested. Furthermore, I discuss the complex spectrum of envy and its multivalent meanings, or oscillations, in the life of Aguabuena people. I also present interactions with people surrounding potters, such as Augustinian monks, crafts middlemen, and municipal authorities, all of whom recount the envy of potters. My research challenges previous anthropological interpretations on envy and provides an alternative reading of this phenomenon. Moving away from labelling and regulatory explanations of envy, performative models, or pathological interpretations of the subject, I analyse the lived experience of envy and how it encompasses different realms of experience as well as flows of social relations. While focusing on the tensions and entanglements that envy brings to potters, as it constrains social life but also activates and reinforces social bonds, I examine the channels through which envy circulates and how it is put into motion by potters. Additionally, my thesis intends to contribute to anthropological studies of rural pottery communities in Andean Colombia. I present my unfolding understanding of envy by using both the potters’ concept and material detail, punto, location, referring to a spot from where Aguabuena people enter different vistas of the world, or denoting a precise time when things or materials change their physical qualities. Through this device, I disclose realms of envy, while seeking to immerse the reader in the lived experience of envy.
2012-12-04T00:00:00ZCastellanos Montes, DanielaThis thesis is an anthropological exploration of the envy of Aguabuena people, a small rural community of potters in the village of Ráquira, in the Boyacá region of Andean Colombia. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork among these potters, I propose an understanding of envy in Aguabuena as an existential experience, shaping relationships between the self and others in the world, crosscutting metaphysical and physical spheres, and balancing between corrosive and more empathetic ways of co-existence. Disclosing the multipresence of envy in Aguabuena’s world, its effects on people (including the ethnographer), and the way envy is embodied, performed, reciprocated and circumvented by the potters, I locate envy in various contexts where it is said to be manifested. Furthermore, I discuss the complex spectrum of envy and its multivalent meanings, or oscillations, in the life of Aguabuena people. I also present interactions with people surrounding potters, such as Augustinian monks, crafts middlemen, and municipal authorities, all of whom recount the envy of potters. My research challenges previous anthropological interpretations on envy and provides an alternative reading of this phenomenon. Moving away from labelling and regulatory explanations of envy, performative models, or pathological interpretations of the subject, I analyse the lived experience of envy and how it encompasses different realms of experience as well as flows of social relations. While focusing on the tensions and entanglements that envy brings to potters, as it constrains social life but also activates and reinforces social bonds, I examine the channels through which envy circulates and how it is put into motion by potters. Additionally, my thesis intends to contribute to anthropological studies of rural pottery communities in Andean Colombia. I present my unfolding understanding of envy by using both the potters’ concept and material detail, punto, location, referring to a spot from where Aguabuena people enter different vistas of the world, or denoting a precise time when things or materials change their physical qualities. Through this device, I disclose realms of envy, while seeking to immerse the reader in the lived experience of envy.The pattern changes changes : gambling value in Highland Papua New GuineaPickles, Anthony J.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/33892019-10-17T08:46:58Z2013-06-27T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the part gambling plays in an urban setting in Highland Papua New Guinea. Gambling did not exist in (what is now) Goroka Town before European contact, nor Papua New Guinea more broadly, but when I conducted fieldwork in 2009-2010 it was an inescapable part of everyday life. One card game proliferated into a multitude of games for different situations and participants, and was supplemented with slot machines, sports betting, darts, and bingo and lottery games.
One could well imagine gambling becoming popular in societies new to it, especially coming on the back of money, wage-work and towns. Yet the popularity of gambling in the region is surprising to social scientists because the peoples now so enamoured by gambling are famous for their love of competitively giving things away, not competing for them. Gambling spread while gifting remained a central part of the way people did transactions. This thesis resists juxtaposing gifting and selfish acquisition. It shows how their opposition is false; that gambling is instead a new analytic technique for manipulating the value of gifts and acquisitions alike, through the medium of money.
Too often gambling takes a familiar form in analyses: as the sharp end of capitalism, or the benign, chance-led redistributor of wealth in egalitarian societies. The thesis builds an ethnographic understanding of gambling, and uses it to interrogate theories of gambling, money, and Melanesian anthropology. In so doing, the thesis speaks to a trend in Melanesian anthropology to debate whether monetisation and urbanisation has brought about a radical split in peoples’ understandings of the world. Dealing with some of the most starkly ‘modern’ material I find a process of inclusive indigenous materialism that consumes the old and the new alike, turning them into a model for action in a dynamic money-led world.
2013-06-27T00:00:00ZPickles, Anthony J.This thesis explores the part gambling plays in an urban setting in Highland Papua New Guinea. Gambling did not exist in (what is now) Goroka Town before European contact, nor Papua New Guinea more broadly, but when I conducted fieldwork in 2009-2010 it was an inescapable part of everyday life. One card game proliferated into a multitude of games for different situations and participants, and was supplemented with slot machines, sports betting, darts, and bingo and lottery games.
One could well imagine gambling becoming popular in societies new to it, especially coming on the back of money, wage-work and towns. Yet the popularity of gambling in the region is surprising to social scientists because the peoples now so enamoured by gambling are famous for their love of competitively giving things away, not competing for them. Gambling spread while gifting remained a central part of the way people did transactions. This thesis resists juxtaposing gifting and selfish acquisition. It shows how their opposition is false; that gambling is instead a new analytic technique for manipulating the value of gifts and acquisitions alike, through the medium of money.
Too often gambling takes a familiar form in analyses: as the sharp end of capitalism, or the benign, chance-led redistributor of wealth in egalitarian societies. The thesis builds an ethnographic understanding of gambling, and uses it to interrogate theories of gambling, money, and Melanesian anthropology. In so doing, the thesis speaks to a trend in Melanesian anthropology to debate whether monetisation and urbanisation has brought about a radical split in peoples’ understandings of the world. Dealing with some of the most starkly ‘modern’ material I find a process of inclusive indigenous materialism that consumes the old and the new alike, turning them into a model for action in a dynamic money-led world.Labour, life, and language: personhood and relations among the Yami of LanyuKao, Hsin-chiehhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/32062019-04-01T09:31:41Z2012-11-30T00:00:00ZThis thesis discusses the concepts of labour, life, and language among the Yami
of Lanyu, Taiwan. In the local context, it is labour, life and language that comprise the
concept of personhood among the Yami: tao, i.e. the ‘person’ in Yami language, is
someone created labouring, and his labour in turn creates affluence, authority, and
truth. I name this culturally particular image of a real or true person as Homo laboris
or ‘Man the Worker’. This thesis aims to explore how labour, wealth, power, and
knowledge are interrelated in Yami culture, and behind these relations, what material,
social and epistemological conditions exist and render the relatedness possible. By
analysing the contemporary economic predicament among the Yami, I attempt to
highlight the effect of an episteme: when the Yami recognise and pursue wealth in the
context of market economy they seem to be blind to the enormous invisible wealth in
the market, because their category of wealth is constructed through numerous
vis-à-vis relationships whose meaning resides in what a particular person is able to
‘see’.
The concept of wealth is being re-categorised among the Yami, due to both their
continuous trial and error in business management and the invincible power of
abstract money. Accordingly, the straightforward relations between wealth, power,
knowledge and labour are dissolving. The image of a real person is also changing now.
In short, what money and commodities introduce to the Yami is not merely their use-
or exchange- value but a set of new relations and a new way to see and recognise the
world.
2012-11-30T00:00:00ZKao, Hsin-chiehThis thesis discusses the concepts of labour, life, and language among the Yami
of Lanyu, Taiwan. In the local context, it is labour, life and language that comprise the
concept of personhood among the Yami: tao, i.e. the ‘person’ in Yami language, is
someone created labouring, and his labour in turn creates affluence, authority, and
truth. I name this culturally particular image of a real or true person as Homo laboris
or ‘Man the Worker’. This thesis aims to explore how labour, wealth, power, and
knowledge are interrelated in Yami culture, and behind these relations, what material,
social and epistemological conditions exist and render the relatedness possible. By
analysing the contemporary economic predicament among the Yami, I attempt to
highlight the effect of an episteme: when the Yami recognise and pursue wealth in the
context of market economy they seem to be blind to the enormous invisible wealth in
the market, because their category of wealth is constructed through numerous
vis-à-vis relationships whose meaning resides in what a particular person is able to
‘see’.
The concept of wealth is being re-categorised among the Yami, due to both their
continuous trial and error in business management and the invincible power of
abstract money. Accordingly, the straightforward relations between wealth, power,
knowledge and labour are dissolving. The image of a real person is also changing now.
In short, what money and commodities introduce to the Yami is not merely their use-
or exchange- value but a set of new relations and a new way to see and recognise the
world.Metafreedom? The carnivalesque of freedom in a Brazilian favelaLino e Silva, Moiseshttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/30952019-04-01T09:30:48Z2012-05-15T00:00:00ZThis thesis dwells on the existence of freedom in the life of people in a Brazilian favela (shantytown). The ethnography presents the dance of freedom with the full intensity of a carnivalesque. The exploration also ponders the existence of metafreedom (proposed as the freedom necessary for the expression of freedom) as a form of control over iterations of freedom. At the same time that it argues for a radical carnivalization of narratives of freedom, it flirts with the very limits of freedom as a concept and as a practice. One of the main contributions is in avoiding a reductive analysis of the concept of freedom, narrowing it to a simpler or alternative notion. Instead, the project presents the complex relations of five experienced objects – livre; livre-arbítrio; libertação; liberada and liberdade – to one another and to the life situations in which they come to existence in Favela da Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro. In methodological terms, the research argues that one of the ways to approach the topic of freedom from an ethnographic perspective is through the occurrences of linguistic expressions of freedom as objects that can be empirically experienced and registered by the ethnographer. It is mainly by making the complexities of freedom visible ethnographically, by tracing freedoms in their daily existence and by connecting these different kinds of freedom to diverse lived experiences and social contexts that the thesis advances the debate on freedom. The discussion of a carnivalesque of freedom in a Brazilian favela is also a call for a reflection on what ethnography as an empirical method, and anthropology more broadly, can offer to the understanding of freedom.
2012-05-15T00:00:00ZLino e Silva, MoisesThis thesis dwells on the existence of freedom in the life of people in a Brazilian favela (shantytown). The ethnography presents the dance of freedom with the full intensity of a carnivalesque. The exploration also ponders the existence of metafreedom (proposed as the freedom necessary for the expression of freedom) as a form of control over iterations of freedom. At the same time that it argues for a radical carnivalization of narratives of freedom, it flirts with the very limits of freedom as a concept and as a practice. One of the main contributions is in avoiding a reductive analysis of the concept of freedom, narrowing it to a simpler or alternative notion. Instead, the project presents the complex relations of five experienced objects – livre; livre-arbítrio; libertação; liberada and liberdade – to one another and to the life situations in which they come to existence in Favela da Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro. In methodological terms, the research argues that one of the ways to approach the topic of freedom from an ethnographic perspective is through the occurrences of linguistic expressions of freedom as objects that can be empirically experienced and registered by the ethnographer. It is mainly by making the complexities of freedom visible ethnographically, by tracing freedoms in their daily existence and by connecting these different kinds of freedom to diverse lived experiences and social contexts that the thesis advances the debate on freedom. The discussion of a carnivalesque of freedom in a Brazilian favela is also a call for a reflection on what ethnography as an empirical method, and anthropology more broadly, can offer to the understanding of freedom.On the margins of the states : contesting Gypsyness and belonging in the Slovak-Ukrainian-Hungarian borderlands and in selected migration contextsGrill, Janhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/30942017-09-11T13:42:54Z2012-06-21T00:00:00ZThis thesis investigates the transnational migration of Slovakian Roma from the eastern borderlands of the European Union to Great Britain. Based on more than two years of ethnographic fieldwork in the village of Tarkovce and in several British cities, this study examines concrete pathways through which Roma come to migrate and experience their movement. For Tarkovce Roma, the most recent migration opportunity offers a potential means to carve out a sense of a viable life and of autonomy amidst the oppressive circumstances and asymmetrical relations they experience with non-Roma dominant groups and non-related Roma. I focus on Tarkovce Roma strivings for existential mobility, which condition their physical movement to the place of destination, and on their hopes for upward socio-economic mobility. I argue that migration enables Roma to contest and re-negotiate the hegemonic racial and social categories which historically place them at the bottom of social hierarchies. The thesis explores the unevenly distributed possibilities and complex inequalities that Tarkovce Roma encounter on their journeys towards realising their hopes in migration. I situate these differences within the daily sociability of Tarkovce Roma, intense webs of kinship and friendship ties, and key concepts of ‘soft hearts’ and ‘heaviness.’ I describe how Roma migrants come to occupy one of the most vulnerable positions in the British labour market and how they simultaneously, and constantly, search for other ways of making ‘big money.’ Finally, I address questions of categorisations, in particular the internal differentiations between Roma, as well as the transformation that many Roma migrants encounter in British cities, from initial ‘invisibility’ to ‘visibility’. By focusing on one particular neighbourhood in Glasgow, I analyse the shifting forms of ethno-cultural categorisations that mark Roma/Gypsy difference.
2012-06-21T00:00:00ZGrill, JanThis thesis investigates the transnational migration of Slovakian Roma from the eastern borderlands of the European Union to Great Britain. Based on more than two years of ethnographic fieldwork in the village of Tarkovce and in several British cities, this study examines concrete pathways through which Roma come to migrate and experience their movement. For Tarkovce Roma, the most recent migration opportunity offers a potential means to carve out a sense of a viable life and of autonomy amidst the oppressive circumstances and asymmetrical relations they experience with non-Roma dominant groups and non-related Roma. I focus on Tarkovce Roma strivings for existential mobility, which condition their physical movement to the place of destination, and on their hopes for upward socio-economic mobility. I argue that migration enables Roma to contest and re-negotiate the hegemonic racial and social categories which historically place them at the bottom of social hierarchies. The thesis explores the unevenly distributed possibilities and complex inequalities that Tarkovce Roma encounter on their journeys towards realising their hopes in migration. I situate these differences within the daily sociability of Tarkovce Roma, intense webs of kinship and friendship ties, and key concepts of ‘soft hearts’ and ‘heaviness.’ I describe how Roma migrants come to occupy one of the most vulnerable positions in the British labour market and how they simultaneously, and constantly, search for other ways of making ‘big money.’ Finally, I address questions of categorisations, in particular the internal differentiations between Roma, as well as the transformation that many Roma migrants encounter in British cities, from initial ‘invisibility’ to ‘visibility’. By focusing on one particular neighbourhood in Glasgow, I analyse the shifting forms of ethno-cultural categorisations that mark Roma/Gypsy difference.The place that words come from... : an ethnography of Quaker worship practices and their social enactmentLloyd-Richards, Huwhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/30692019-04-01T09:32:15Z2011-11-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis addresses the worship practices of contemporary Quakers and their
social enactment. It presents an ethnography that attempts to evoke
participation in Meeting for Worship at a local site (St Andrews Quaker Meeting)
and also adopts a strategic perspective towards Quaker practices as a
dispersed community of practice. It deploys two major theoretical frameworks: a
revised theory of secularisation developed by Taylor (2007) and Martin (2005);
and Cultural Theory developed from Douglas (1996,1998). A short history of
Quakers is set out. A context for contemporary Quakers, the ‘spiritual
landscape’ (Taylor, 2007), is characterised. Quaker reflexive literature is
reviewed. Following the ethnography of a Meeting for Worship, four key
domains of practice are further discussed – the body, silence, speech and
gatheredness. The Meeting for Worship for Business is described using
ethnographic material. Sources of power, decision-making criteria, the
construction of the Quaker narrative, and the emergence of renewal initiatives
are reviewed. Four central elements of Quaker practice – the Worship ritual, the
Testimonies, Business Meetings, and Cosmologies – are plotted within the grid-group model and Cultural Theory. The thesis has twenty-two Figures and five
Appendices which contain a Dramatis Personae, a Fieldwork Diary and
background information on Quaker practice. The challenge for contemporary
Quakers is portrayed as the attempt to create and maintain unity in diversity and
this is explicated by analysing Quaker practices in the light of the pressures of
secularisation and cross-pressures within the spiritual landscape, in particular
the dialectical tension theorised by Taylor (2007) between ‘transcendence’ and
‘immanence’.
2011-11-01T00:00:00ZLloyd-Richards, HuwThis thesis addresses the worship practices of contemporary Quakers and their
social enactment. It presents an ethnography that attempts to evoke
participation in Meeting for Worship at a local site (St Andrews Quaker Meeting)
and also adopts a strategic perspective towards Quaker practices as a
dispersed community of practice. It deploys two major theoretical frameworks: a
revised theory of secularisation developed by Taylor (2007) and Martin (2005);
and Cultural Theory developed from Douglas (1996,1998). A short history of
Quakers is set out. A context for contemporary Quakers, the ‘spiritual
landscape’ (Taylor, 2007), is characterised. Quaker reflexive literature is
reviewed. Following the ethnography of a Meeting for Worship, four key
domains of practice are further discussed – the body, silence, speech and
gatheredness. The Meeting for Worship for Business is described using
ethnographic material. Sources of power, decision-making criteria, the
construction of the Quaker narrative, and the emergence of renewal initiatives
are reviewed. Four central elements of Quaker practice – the Worship ritual, the
Testimonies, Business Meetings, and Cosmologies – are plotted within the grid-group model and Cultural Theory. The thesis has twenty-two Figures and five
Appendices which contain a Dramatis Personae, a Fieldwork Diary and
background information on Quaker practice. The challenge for contemporary
Quakers is portrayed as the attempt to create and maintain unity in diversity and
this is explicated by analysing Quaker practices in the light of the pressures of
secularisation and cross-pressures within the spiritual landscape, in particular
the dialectical tension theorised by Taylor (2007) between ‘transcendence’ and
‘immanence’.Old ways - new ways : Talang Mamak of Tiga Balai, Inderagiri Hulu, Propinsi Riau, SumatraSingleton, Williamhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/29642019-04-01T09:30:03Z1998-01-01T00:00:00ZIn this thesis
I
place
detailed descriptions
of
Talang Mamak lives in
an
historically
reconstructed context which
focuses
upon the Talang Mamak's
status as
debt-bondsmen
of the
Sultans
of the
kingdom
of
Inderagiri (1509-1963). Information
about current
Talang Mamak
lives is
presented
in the
form
of
five life-histories,
or
biographies, in
which
both local issues
(development; deforestation; drought;
crime; relationships with wider,
Muslim,
society;
debt-
management;
)
and
local
practices
(leadership,
rice-farming, rubber cultivation and tapping,
cock-fighting, shamanism, marriage, etc) are
described in terms of the
biographical
subjects'
experiences of them. Preceding the
life-histories
and
forming
a context
in
which they can
be
understood,
is
an
historical
reconstruction of
Minangkabau
and
Malay
settlements along the
Inderagiri
river, the establishment of the
kingdom
of
Inderagiri
and
its
relationship with the
Dutch
and the Republic
of
Indonesia. In this
history I
re-describe
both
the well-documented
Minangkabau
and the as-yet undocumented
Talang Mamak, in terms of relationships
between
rulers and their
debt-bondsmen
subjects and show that
forms
of social organisation such as
matrilineal
inheritance, duolocal
residence and
bride-price
were enforced,
by
rulers, upon
their debt-bondsmen
subjects as a means of maintaining and manipulating social
inequalities.
After the five life-histories, by
way of a conclusion,
I
suggest that the
`culture'
of many
isolated,
non-Muslim groups on
both
sides of the Straits
of
Melaka, including Talang Mamak
and
Kubu in Sumatra,
and
Semai
and
Temuan in Malaysia,
can
be best
understood
in terms of
their economic relationships with
Malay
and
Minangkabau
rulers and recent changes to these
ties introduced by
modern nation-states.
Using this perspective I
reject the
label `Proto-
Malay'
which
has been
customarily used to
describe isolated
non-Muslim populations
in
Sumatra,
such as
Talang Mamak,
and
in Malaysia,
such as
Semai, in terms of so-called ethnic
characteristics.
I
propose that what these groups of people
have in
common
is
not an ascribed
ethnicity
but
rather similar
historical
relationships with
Muslim kingdoms
who they served as
debt-bondsmen.
1998-01-01T00:00:00ZSingleton, WilliamIn this thesis
I
place
detailed descriptions
of
Talang Mamak lives in
an
historically
reconstructed context which
focuses
upon the Talang Mamak's
status as
debt-bondsmen
of the
Sultans
of the
kingdom
of
Inderagiri (1509-1963). Information
about current
Talang Mamak
lives is
presented
in the
form
of
five life-histories,
or
biographies, in
which
both local issues
(development; deforestation; drought;
crime; relationships with wider,
Muslim,
society;
debt-
management;
)
and
local
practices
(leadership,
rice-farming, rubber cultivation and tapping,
cock-fighting, shamanism, marriage, etc) are
described in terms of the
biographical
subjects'
experiences of them. Preceding the
life-histories
and
forming
a context
in
which they can
be
understood,
is
an
historical
reconstruction of
Minangkabau
and
Malay
settlements along the
Inderagiri
river, the establishment of the
kingdom
of
Inderagiri
and
its
relationship with the
Dutch
and the Republic
of
Indonesia. In this
history I
re-describe
both
the well-documented
Minangkabau
and the as-yet undocumented
Talang Mamak, in terms of relationships
between
rulers and their
debt-bondsmen
subjects and show that
forms
of social organisation such as
matrilineal
inheritance, duolocal
residence and
bride-price
were enforced,
by
rulers, upon
their debt-bondsmen
subjects as a means of maintaining and manipulating social
inequalities.
After the five life-histories, by
way of a conclusion,
I
suggest that the
`culture'
of many
isolated,
non-Muslim groups on
both
sides of the Straits
of
Melaka, including Talang Mamak
and
Kubu in Sumatra,
and
Semai
and
Temuan in Malaysia,
can
be best
understood
in terms of
their economic relationships with
Malay
and
Minangkabau
rulers and recent changes to these
ties introduced by
modern nation-states.
Using this perspective I
reject the
label `Proto-
Malay'
which
has been
customarily used to
describe isolated
non-Muslim populations
in
Sumatra,
such as
Talang Mamak,
and
in Malaysia,
such as
Semai, in terms of so-called ethnic
characteristics.
I
propose that what these groups of people
have in
common
is
not an ascribed
ethnicity
but
rather similar
historical
relationships with
Muslim kingdoms
who they served as
debt-bondsmen.Scottish Highlanders in colonial Georgia : the recruitment, emigration and settlement at Darien, 1735-1748Parker, Anthony W.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/29602019-08-26T11:17:42Z1996-01-01T00:00:00ZThis
volume
is
a study of
the immigration
of
three individual
groups
of
Scottish Highlanders
as
they
ventured
to the
new colony of
Georgia in
British North America between the
years
1735
and
1748. It
examines
the
importance
of
the area of
the Altamaha River in
which
they settled and
the conflicts along
the
southern
frontier
of
British
colonial
America
between the
rival powers of
Great Britain, Spain, France,
and
the Native
American
population.
These
struggles would necessitate
the organised
recruiting efforts made on
the
part of
the Trustees for Establishing the
Colony
of
Georgia in America to bring Highland Scots, in
particular,
to the
province as
their first line
of
defense.
The focus
of
the text is
on
the Scots themselves as
the
changing
conditions
in the Highlands
motivated
them to leave their
native glens of
Scotland to
come
to the
pine
barrens
of
Georgia. The thesis
explores
the
ability of
these immigrants to face the challenges of a new environment
and
the trials
of
the frontier
settlement at
Darien. It is
an account of
how
their cultural
distinctiveness
and
"old
world" experience aptly prepared
them to adapt and to
prosper
in the
new
land
and
to
play a vital role
in
the
survival of colonial
Georgia. The Highlanders
of
Scotland
who settled
at
Darien during the first two decades
of
the
colony's existence
have been
relegated
to the
shadows of
Georgia's
colonial
history for too long
and
this
work
hopes to establish
their importance during this
crucial period.
1996-01-01T00:00:00ZParker, Anthony W.This
volume
is
a study of
the immigration
of
three individual
groups
of
Scottish Highlanders
as
they
ventured
to the
new colony of
Georgia in
British North America between the
years
1735
and
1748. It
examines
the
importance
of
the area of
the Altamaha River in
which
they settled and
the conflicts along
the
southern
frontier
of
British
colonial
America
between the
rival powers of
Great Britain, Spain, France,
and
the Native
American
population.
These
struggles would necessitate
the organised
recruiting efforts made on
the
part of
the Trustees for Establishing the
Colony
of
Georgia in America to bring Highland Scots, in
particular,
to the
province as
their first line
of
defense.
The focus
of
the text is
on
the Scots themselves as
the
changing
conditions
in the Highlands
motivated
them to leave their
native glens of
Scotland to
come
to the
pine
barrens
of
Georgia. The thesis
explores
the
ability of
these immigrants to face the challenges of a new environment
and
the trials
of
the frontier
settlement at
Darien. It is
an account of
how
their cultural
distinctiveness
and
"old
world" experience aptly prepared
them to adapt and to
prosper
in the
new
land
and
to
play a vital role
in
the
survival of colonial
Georgia. The Highlanders
of
Scotland
who settled
at
Darien during the first two decades
of
the
colony's existence
have been
relegated
to the
shadows of
Georgia's
colonial
history for too long
and
this
work
hopes to establish
their importance during this
crucial period.Acculturation and bilingualism in Guambía (Colombia)Long, Violethttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/29552019-04-01T09:28:58Z1980-01-01T00:00:00ZThe objective of
this study
is to trace the
relationship
between
oveit and covert acculturation and
bilingualism in the Colombian Indian community of
Guambia.
The first section
describes the ten indicators of
innovative behaviour that form the Overt Acculturation
Scale,
on
the basis
of which
the informants were allocated
to three Acculturation Categories. These indicators,
weighted according
to their
relative
importance for the
Guambianos, are:
dress
and
language;
occupation, migration
and education; reciprocal
labour,
goods and
the home,
ritual
and medicine, and access
to the media.
Acculturation has
noticeably affected very
few. These
form
an elite of well-educated young men who wear
Western
clothes,
have specialised occupations and skills, and are
well-acquainted with
White culture and society
through
personal
ties, migration and
the
media.
All
others are
distributed along a continuum,
taking
more or
less from the
White World.
Secondly, imaginative stories
told in Guambiano and
Spanish to
a series of pictures
by the informants
were
analysed
for
signs of covert acculturation.
Six hypotheses
were statistically
tested
which
held that the
ethnic
identity
of
the
characters portrayed, as
Guambiano
or
White, would
affect
their
personalities, actions, aims,
interactions
and emotions. Also, the
acculturational level
of
the
story-
teller
and
the language
used would affect the
content,
except
for
emotion.
In Guambiano
all
display similar beliefs in traditional
values and a similar
acculturated are
fav
achievement-oriented
show ambivalence and
people and culture.
Thirdly, these
ethnocentrism; in Spanish the highly
curable
to White
characters and more
and ambitious, the
slightly acculturated
the
unacculturated defend their
own
same stories were used
to investigate
bilingual
proficiency.
The
range of syntactic constructions
used
in the two languages, the
range of vocabulary
found in
Spanish,
and the levels
of grammatical and
lexical
interference in both languages
were used as measures of oral
productive proficiency.
The
majority shows sufficient
proficiency in Spanish for inter-group
communication,
but
some
few have
only a passive
knowledge
and others prove
more fluent than in Guambiano
on
the test.
The major conclusion
is that the Guambianos'
strong
ethnic identity
-
symbolised
in their dress, language, land
and work -
prevents greater acculturation. At
present only
the highly
acculturated elite
is innovative
and
bicultural,
while
the
majority seeks
to
maintain
its
cultural
heritage.
It is
economic interaction,
not
bilingualism, that
will
probably
lead to
eventual wholesale modification, since
the
Guambiano language
remains strong
but the
economic situation
grows ever worse.
1980-01-01T00:00:00ZLong, VioletThe objective of
this study
is to trace the
relationship
between
oveit and covert acculturation and
bilingualism in the Colombian Indian community of
Guambia.
The first section
describes the ten indicators of
innovative behaviour that form the Overt Acculturation
Scale,
on
the basis
of which
the informants were allocated
to three Acculturation Categories. These indicators,
weighted according
to their
relative
importance for the
Guambianos, are:
dress
and
language;
occupation, migration
and education; reciprocal
labour,
goods and
the home,
ritual
and medicine, and access
to the media.
Acculturation has
noticeably affected very
few. These
form
an elite of well-educated young men who wear
Western
clothes,
have specialised occupations and skills, and are
well-acquainted with
White culture and society
through
personal
ties, migration and
the
media.
All
others are
distributed along a continuum,
taking
more or
less from the
White World.
Secondly, imaginative stories
told in Guambiano and
Spanish to
a series of pictures
by the informants
were
analysed
for
signs of covert acculturation.
Six hypotheses
were statistically
tested
which
held that the
ethnic
identity
of
the
characters portrayed, as
Guambiano
or
White, would
affect
their
personalities, actions, aims,
interactions
and emotions. Also, the
acculturational level
of
the
story-
teller
and
the language
used would affect the
content,
except
for
emotion.
In Guambiano
all
display similar beliefs in traditional
values and a similar
acculturated are
fav
achievement-oriented
show ambivalence and
people and culture.
Thirdly, these
ethnocentrism; in Spanish the highly
curable
to White
characters and more
and ambitious, the
slightly acculturated
the
unacculturated defend their
own
same stories were used
to investigate
bilingual
proficiency.
The
range of syntactic constructions
used
in the two languages, the
range of vocabulary
found in
Spanish,
and the levels
of grammatical and
lexical
interference in both languages
were used as measures of oral
productive proficiency.
The
majority shows sufficient
proficiency in Spanish for inter-group
communication,
but
some
few have
only a passive
knowledge
and others prove
more fluent than in Guambiano
on
the test.
The major conclusion
is that the Guambianos'
strong
ethnic identity
-
symbolised
in their dress, language, land
and work -
prevents greater acculturation. At
present only
the highly
acculturated elite
is innovative
and
bicultural,
while
the
majority seeks
to
maintain
its
cultural
heritage.
It is
economic interaction,
not
bilingualism, that
will
probably
lead to
eventual wholesale modification, since
the
Guambiano language
remains strong
but the
economic situation
grows ever worse.Phonology of San Martin QuechuaHowkins, Douglas Williamhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/28952019-04-01T09:31:09Z1972-01-01T00:00:00ZWhile the present work is far from being a definitive one,
it does aim at providing a fairly complete phonology of San
Martin Quechua. The author has tried to give a satisfactory account
of the descriptive problems and their possible solutions for the
dialect. The theoretical principles used to solve the problems
are explained, the notions of the theory are defined, and their
application to the data is outlined in every case, and explained
in some detail in many cases as well.
This work is unusual among works on Quechua as regards the
space it devotes to explaining and solving problems in the description.
Existing descriptions of Quechua may be characterised as
supposedly problem-less descriptions. The present work treats
Phonology, not as a subsidiary to grammar but as a universe in
its own right, with its own problems and solutions. The European
background of the work, and the 'axiomatic' approach of Mulder,
have undoubtedly contributed in, great measure to the nature of this
description, and to what some might call its 'preoccupation' with
problems. Without wishing to tag derogatory labels on Bloomfieldian
linguistics (enough writers have done so already). I have written
the present work as a possible answer to what I believe to be an
inadmissable ‘gap’ in Quechua linguistic description as it stands
the lack of a rigorous autonomous phonology, which attempts to
recognise, state and solve descriptive problems. It is to be hoped
that the present work provides a beginning for a fully-fledged
discipline of Quechua phonology. [Taken from the forward not from the abstract].
1972-01-01T00:00:00ZHowkins, Douglas WilliamWhile the present work is far from being a definitive one,
it does aim at providing a fairly complete phonology of San
Martin Quechua. The author has tried to give a satisfactory account
of the descriptive problems and their possible solutions for the
dialect. The theoretical principles used to solve the problems
are explained, the notions of the theory are defined, and their
application to the data is outlined in every case, and explained
in some detail in many cases as well.
This work is unusual among works on Quechua as regards the
space it devotes to explaining and solving problems in the description.
Existing descriptions of Quechua may be characterised as
supposedly problem-less descriptions. The present work treats
Phonology, not as a subsidiary to grammar but as a universe in
its own right, with its own problems and solutions. The European
background of the work, and the 'axiomatic' approach of Mulder,
have undoubtedly contributed in, great measure to the nature of this
description, and to what some might call its 'preoccupation' with
problems. Without wishing to tag derogatory labels on Bloomfieldian
linguistics (enough writers have done so already). I have written
the present work as a possible answer to what I believe to be an
inadmissable ‘gap’ in Quechua linguistic description as it stands
the lack of a rigorous autonomous phonology, which attempts to
recognise, state and solve descriptive problems. It is to be hoped
that the present work provides a beginning for a fully-fledged
discipline of Quechua phonology. [Taken from the forward not from the abstract].Archaeology of Trobriand knowledge: Foucault in the Trobriand IslandsSlattery, David P.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/28442019-04-01T09:31:45Z1992-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis holds that the application of the archaeological
method, developed by the French philosopher Michel
Foucault, to the field of anthropology reveals a hitherto
hidden primitive episteme. Such a project represents a
rejection of a search for a fundamental Truth, available
through the traditional figures of rationality, either
vertically in history or horizontally across cultures. The
form of reason posited by this project does not have a
constant and universal occurrence but is given in the discontinuous
figures of the episteme. The quest for a single
manifestation of the conditions of validity in reason is
replaced by a study of the conditions of possibility of the
truths, discourses and institutions of a primitive peoples.
The conditions of possibility for the emergence of the
elements of primitive knowledge and practices are available
through the application of the explanatory unities of the
archaeological method. These unities replace the traditional
explanatory role of the subject, with all of its psychological
baggage, which has a central role in modern theories of
rationality. The subject-knowledge link that dominates
traditional anthropological analyses is replaced by a powerknowledge
link that postulates the two axes of discursive
and non-discursive concerns. The discursive axis is concerned
with the objects, concepts, statements and discursive
formations of primitive knowledge while the non-discursive
axis is concerned with the systems of power that propagate
and sustain those discourses. These two axes constitute the
nature of the archaeology employed in this study.
This thesis is sustained by both negative and positive
evidence. The negative evidence takes the form of an antisubjectivist
thrust where the subject-dependent explanatory
unities of the tradition are replaced by the positivistic
elements of archaeology. The positive evidence primarily
takes the form of a detailed analysis of the presence of the
guiding codes of the episteme amongst the Trobriand Islanders
that give rise to their primitive knowledge and practices.
In this area, I make extensive use of Malinowski's
ethnographic observations for their breath of detail and
application without employing his subject-dependent psychobiological
conclusions. Further, I am proposing a transformative
position such that orality becomes a feature of the
episteme rather than its condition of possibility.
The guiding codes of the Trobriand episteme take the
form of enclosed oppositional figures that are everywhere
related to space. The Trobriand episteme provides the conditions
for the emergence of primitive discourses and orders
the experiences of the Trobrianders. The guiding figures of
the episteme are based in a form of complementary opposition,
causation as vitality and a dogma of topological space
that give rise to primitive knowledge which is a form of
divination. A significant part of this dissertation is taken
up with an examination of the detail and limitation of these
figures where ideas from Levy-Bruhl, Hallpike, and others
are employed to produce the most appropriate configuration
for my project. A particular form of language as the manipulation
of real signs, rather than ideational signs, has its
possibility in this configuration which has consequences for
the type of knowledge produced. The form of knowledge appropriate
to the presence of such a model of language is magic.
Writing has no possibility for emerging in this episteme
and, therefore, there are significant consequences for the
type of knowledge that can be maintained and propagated in a
context which must utilise static tradition to the detriment
of reflection.
An archaeological analysis of the Trobriand Islanders,
focusing on discourses on sex and marriage, the nature of
tabooed sexual acts, economic relations arising out of
marriage and the role of the polygamous chief, the nature of
love-magic and magic in general, reveals a shared possibility
for all of these discursive realms in the figures of the
episteme. These discourses are regulated by the presence of
a fundamental opposition between a brother and his sister.
This opposition forms the motif for primitive problematizations
and constitutes a vulnerable boundary which is the
appropriate focus of taboos relating to sex and food,
amongst others.
This primitive episteme characterises the unity of the
experiences of the Trobrianders. This experience is discontinuous
with our own and does not involve a role for the
individual ego. This project represents a worthwhile contribution
to an understanding of human experience and knowledge
in general which does not seek to reduce the natural diversity
of man to just the monotonous experience of modern man.
In conclusion, I tentatively speculate about the appropriateness
of the Trobriand figures for primitive experience in
general.
1992-01-01T00:00:00ZSlattery, David P.This thesis holds that the application of the archaeological
method, developed by the French philosopher Michel
Foucault, to the field of anthropology reveals a hitherto
hidden primitive episteme. Such a project represents a
rejection of a search for a fundamental Truth, available
through the traditional figures of rationality, either
vertically in history or horizontally across cultures. The
form of reason posited by this project does not have a
constant and universal occurrence but is given in the discontinuous
figures of the episteme. The quest for a single
manifestation of the conditions of validity in reason is
replaced by a study of the conditions of possibility of the
truths, discourses and institutions of a primitive peoples.
The conditions of possibility for the emergence of the
elements of primitive knowledge and practices are available
through the application of the explanatory unities of the
archaeological method. These unities replace the traditional
explanatory role of the subject, with all of its psychological
baggage, which has a central role in modern theories of
rationality. The subject-knowledge link that dominates
traditional anthropological analyses is replaced by a powerknowledge
link that postulates the two axes of discursive
and non-discursive concerns. The discursive axis is concerned
with the objects, concepts, statements and discursive
formations of primitive knowledge while the non-discursive
axis is concerned with the systems of power that propagate
and sustain those discourses. These two axes constitute the
nature of the archaeology employed in this study.
This thesis is sustained by both negative and positive
evidence. The negative evidence takes the form of an antisubjectivist
thrust where the subject-dependent explanatory
unities of the tradition are replaced by the positivistic
elements of archaeology. The positive evidence primarily
takes the form of a detailed analysis of the presence of the
guiding codes of the episteme amongst the Trobriand Islanders
that give rise to their primitive knowledge and practices.
In this area, I make extensive use of Malinowski's
ethnographic observations for their breath of detail and
application without employing his subject-dependent psychobiological
conclusions. Further, I am proposing a transformative
position such that orality becomes a feature of the
episteme rather than its condition of possibility.
The guiding codes of the Trobriand episteme take the
form of enclosed oppositional figures that are everywhere
related to space. The Trobriand episteme provides the conditions
for the emergence of primitive discourses and orders
the experiences of the Trobrianders. The guiding figures of
the episteme are based in a form of complementary opposition,
causation as vitality and a dogma of topological space
that give rise to primitive knowledge which is a form of
divination. A significant part of this dissertation is taken
up with an examination of the detail and limitation of these
figures where ideas from Levy-Bruhl, Hallpike, and others
are employed to produce the most appropriate configuration
for my project. A particular form of language as the manipulation
of real signs, rather than ideational signs, has its
possibility in this configuration which has consequences for
the type of knowledge produced. The form of knowledge appropriate
to the presence of such a model of language is magic.
Writing has no possibility for emerging in this episteme
and, therefore, there are significant consequences for the
type of knowledge that can be maintained and propagated in a
context which must utilise static tradition to the detriment
of reflection.
An archaeological analysis of the Trobriand Islanders,
focusing on discourses on sex and marriage, the nature of
tabooed sexual acts, economic relations arising out of
marriage and the role of the polygamous chief, the nature of
love-magic and magic in general, reveals a shared possibility
for all of these discursive realms in the figures of the
episteme. These discourses are regulated by the presence of
a fundamental opposition between a brother and his sister.
This opposition forms the motif for primitive problematizations
and constitutes a vulnerable boundary which is the
appropriate focus of taboos relating to sex and food,
amongst others.
This primitive episteme characterises the unity of the
experiences of the Trobrianders. This experience is discontinuous
with our own and does not involve a role for the
individual ego. This project represents a worthwhile contribution
to an understanding of human experience and knowledge
in general which does not seek to reduce the natural diversity
of man to just the monotonous experience of modern man.
In conclusion, I tentatively speculate about the appropriateness
of the Trobriand figures for primitive experience in
general.Religious men and literacy in Berti societyEltom, Abdullahi Osmanhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/28312019-03-29T16:07:22Z1984-01-01T00:00:00ZThe thesis examines the use of traditional literacy promulgated
by the Koranic schools among the Berti in the Northern Darfur
Province of the Republic of the Sudan. This literacy is restricted
both in the scope of its use as well as in its social distribution,
which remains limited to religious specialists - fakis. Instead of
leading to a change in the traditional mode of thought, Berti
literacy contributes considerably to maintaining the homeostatic
tendency supposedly characteristic of oral societies.
Literacy plays an important role in the Berti religious life.
The words of God contained in the Koran and other books widely used
by the fakis are considered to be sacred, and an important aspect of
Berti religion is their internalisation in the form of memorisation,
drinking of erasure and the retaining of amulets (hijbat). The
repetition of sacred words is used as a means of invoking God in
communal rituals and the rites of passage. Literacy underlies book
divination practised by the fakis and its literate origin is the
ultimate sanction of sand divination which is primarily practised by
the illiterate Berti.
In their use of the sacred words in healing, divination,
communal rituals, rites of passage and the preparation of amulets
and erasure, Berti fakis impose their own meaning on the Koranic
text which differs considerably from its theological meaning.
The thesis includes translation and analysis of over 50
original texts pertaining to erasure writing, amulets, book
divination and communal rituals. Photocopies of 25 original amulets
are presented in the thesis and the majority of them are translated
and commented upon.
1984-01-01T00:00:00ZEltom, Abdullahi OsmanThe thesis examines the use of traditional literacy promulgated
by the Koranic schools among the Berti in the Northern Darfur
Province of the Republic of the Sudan. This literacy is restricted
both in the scope of its use as well as in its social distribution,
which remains limited to religious specialists - fakis. Instead of
leading to a change in the traditional mode of thought, Berti
literacy contributes considerably to maintaining the homeostatic
tendency supposedly characteristic of oral societies.
Literacy plays an important role in the Berti religious life.
The words of God contained in the Koran and other books widely used
by the fakis are considered to be sacred, and an important aspect of
Berti religion is their internalisation in the form of memorisation,
drinking of erasure and the retaining of amulets (hijbat). The
repetition of sacred words is used as a means of invoking God in
communal rituals and the rites of passage. Literacy underlies book
divination practised by the fakis and its literate origin is the
ultimate sanction of sand divination which is primarily practised by
the illiterate Berti.
In their use of the sacred words in healing, divination,
communal rituals, rites of passage and the preparation of amulets
and erasure, Berti fakis impose their own meaning on the Koranic
text which differs considerably from its theological meaning.
The thesis includes translation and analysis of over 50
original texts pertaining to erasure writing, amulets, book
divination and communal rituals. Photocopies of 25 original amulets
are presented in the thesis and the majority of them are translated
and commented upon.At home in national parks : a study of power, knowledge and discourse in Banff National Park and Cairngorms National ParkRettie, Kathleenhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/28192019-07-01T10:17:59Z2006-01-01T00:00:00ZNational Parks bear greater implications than simply preserving or conserving pockets
of
landscape. They
evoke values of conservation versus development, livelihood
economics, environmental stewardship and personal enrichment; they fulfil
positions
in
relation to the national and the international
stage.
Social
characteristics are
revealed though this comparative study of
Banff National Park
and the Cairngorms
National Park. Perceptions of space, place and boundaries crucially
imply different
meanings to the people
living inside the national park
boundaries
and those living
outside the boundaries. 'Insiders'
are
long-term
permanent residents
for
whom
being
in the park
is
a practical activity;
'outsiders' include
scientists, conservationists,
bureaucrats,
and tourists, who take various
ideological
positions regarding the park's
purpose.
Both
sides take a serious
interest in the park and
how it is
managed and
regard
it
as a place where they are
'at home'. Groups
within these spaces considers
their values and rights superior to others and conflict often arises.
Non-violent
means
of gaining power as theorized by Foucault
and
Bourdieu,
employing
knowledge
and
discourse,
are
highly
suggestive
in the study of national parks.
Discourse
of nature
is
strategically significant as
it influences
purpose and policy that drive
government's
decisions
on
how the park will
be
managed - in
this way
discourse
shapes the culture
of
how
we use nature.
Knowledge,
as symbolic capital and as the basis for truth,
sparks
divisiveness - in
particular scientific
knowledge
versus experiential
knowledge.
Changes to the exclusive
North American
model, such as those instituted in the
Caimgorms,
mark the increased
social utility and
inclusive
nature of national parks.
The
challenge remains
for
park managers to reconcile values connected with
nationalism and environmental ethics with values connected with
local livelihoods.
2006-01-01T00:00:00ZRettie, KathleenNational Parks bear greater implications than simply preserving or conserving pockets
of
landscape. They
evoke values of conservation versus development, livelihood
economics, environmental stewardship and personal enrichment; they fulfil
positions
in
relation to the national and the international
stage.
Social
characteristics are
revealed though this comparative study of
Banff National Park
and the Cairngorms
National Park. Perceptions of space, place and boundaries crucially
imply different
meanings to the people
living inside the national park
boundaries
and those living
outside the boundaries. 'Insiders'
are
long-term
permanent residents
for
whom
being
in the park
is
a practical activity;
'outsiders' include
scientists, conservationists,
bureaucrats,
and tourists, who take various
ideological
positions regarding the park's
purpose.
Both
sides take a serious
interest in the park and
how it is
managed and
regard
it
as a place where they are
'at home'. Groups
within these spaces considers
their values and rights superior to others and conflict often arises.
Non-violent
means
of gaining power as theorized by Foucault
and
Bourdieu,
employing
knowledge
and
discourse,
are
highly
suggestive
in the study of national parks.
Discourse
of nature
is
strategically significant as
it influences
purpose and policy that drive
government's
decisions
on
how the park will
be
managed - in
this way
discourse
shapes the culture
of
how
we use nature.
Knowledge,
as symbolic capital and as the basis for truth,
sparks
divisiveness - in
particular scientific
knowledge
versus experiential
knowledge.
Changes to the exclusive
North American
model, such as those instituted in the
Caimgorms,
mark the increased
social utility and
inclusive
nature of national parks.
The
challenge remains
for
park managers to reconcile values connected with
nationalism and environmental ethics with values connected with
local livelihoods.The Rainbow Family : an ethnography of spiritual postmodernismBerger, Adamhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/26792019-04-01T09:29:01Z2006-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Rainbow Family of Living Light is an intentional society devoted to
achieving world peace through spiritual healing. A loose association of spiritual
seekers that explicitly rejects all forms of leadership and imposed authority, it
represents an interesting example of an anarchist and communal society.
Rainbow Family events regularly draw thousands of people. These take place all
over the world. While some participants may question the label, it can be
described as one of the biggest and most geographically diverse New Age
groups on the planet. As such, it is a very important factor in shaping the entire
present day New Age movement.
I conducted fieldwork with the Rainbow Family between the autumns of
1998 and 2002, traveling with the nomadic group throughout the United States.
The Rainbow Family rejects any sort of official membership, accepting anyone
who attends its events as an equal participant. Spending extended periods of
time in the field, I became immersed in this alternative society. The distinction
between ethnographic researcher and informants was highly problematic under
such circumstances. This made me acutely aware of the issues surrounding
fieldwork and anthropological authority. My own work began to seem quite
similar to the spiritual seeking of other participants. As such, I began to consider
the commonalities between anthropology and the spirituality encountered
within the Rainbow Family.
The spiritual discourses produced by Rainbow Family participants are
uniquely eclectic and ludic in tone. In a setting explicitly championing individual
freedom rather than coercion, there is no sense of spiritual orthodoxy. The ways
in which spiritual discourses are treated by the Rainbow Family display
interesting attitudes towards truth, authority, and reality. These attitudes are
reminiscent of epistemological orientations within postmodernist anthropology.
Rainbow Family participants find noteworthy solutions to the apparent
ontological dilemmas postmodernism presents. It is my hope that looking at the
Rainbow Family of Living Light will suggest a viable way for anthropology to
productively deal with its current crisis of identity.
2006-01-01T00:00:00ZBerger, AdamThe Rainbow Family of Living Light is an intentional society devoted to
achieving world peace through spiritual healing. A loose association of spiritual
seekers that explicitly rejects all forms of leadership and imposed authority, it
represents an interesting example of an anarchist and communal society.
Rainbow Family events regularly draw thousands of people. These take place all
over the world. While some participants may question the label, it can be
described as one of the biggest and most geographically diverse New Age
groups on the planet. As such, it is a very important factor in shaping the entire
present day New Age movement.
I conducted fieldwork with the Rainbow Family between the autumns of
1998 and 2002, traveling with the nomadic group throughout the United States.
The Rainbow Family rejects any sort of official membership, accepting anyone
who attends its events as an equal participant. Spending extended periods of
time in the field, I became immersed in this alternative society. The distinction
between ethnographic researcher and informants was highly problematic under
such circumstances. This made me acutely aware of the issues surrounding
fieldwork and anthropological authority. My own work began to seem quite
similar to the spiritual seeking of other participants. As such, I began to consider
the commonalities between anthropology and the spirituality encountered
within the Rainbow Family.
The spiritual discourses produced by Rainbow Family participants are
uniquely eclectic and ludic in tone. In a setting explicitly championing individual
freedom rather than coercion, there is no sense of spiritual orthodoxy. The ways
in which spiritual discourses are treated by the Rainbow Family display
interesting attitudes towards truth, authority, and reality. These attitudes are
reminiscent of epistemological orientations within postmodernist anthropology.
Rainbow Family participants find noteworthy solutions to the apparent
ontological dilemmas postmodernism presents. It is my hope that looking at the
Rainbow Family of Living Light will suggest a viable way for anthropology to
productively deal with its current crisis of identity.Of life and happines: morality, aesthetics, and social life among the southeastern Amazonian Mebengokré (Kayapó), as seen from the margins of ritualde Oliveira, Adolfohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/26652019-07-01T10:12:03Z2003-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis deals with different aspects of the processes of production of sociability
among the Xikrin-Mebengokre of the Catete River, central Brazil. I focus on
ceremonies and their performance, as ways of access to Mebengokre conceptions
concerning the morality and aesthetics of social life. I analyse the semiotics of
'kin'-ship production, the performative aspects of emotion as a sociability tool, the
use of song and dance for the co-ordination of collective technical tasks, and a
Mebengokre 'theory of language' as social agency. In the conclusion I focus on the
criticism of some of the key theoretical aspects of Ge ethnology, in the light of my
previous analysis.
2003-01-01T00:00:00Zde Oliveira, AdolfoThis thesis deals with different aspects of the processes of production of sociability
among the Xikrin-Mebengokre of the Catete River, central Brazil. I focus on
ceremonies and their performance, as ways of access to Mebengokre conceptions
concerning the morality and aesthetics of social life. I analyse the semiotics of
'kin'-ship production, the performative aspects of emotion as a sociability tool, the
use of song and dance for the co-ordination of collective technical tasks, and a
Mebengokre 'theory of language' as social agency. In the conclusion I focus on the
criticism of some of the key theoretical aspects of Ge ethnology, in the light of my
previous analysis.Islam, traditional beliefs and ritual practices among the Zaghawa of SudanMohamed-Salih, El Tigani Mustafahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/26182019-04-01T09:29:23Z1991-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is about the traditional beliefs and the process of Islamization among
the Zaghawa. It examines Islam as understood and practised by the Zaghawa
society rather than the "universal model" of Islam or Islam as it is supposed to be.
Chapter one is concerned with the 'basic' cosmology, system of belief and objects of
sanctity among the Zaghawa. The Zaghawa gave the names of their ha mandas (sacred
mountains) to their territorial divisions and their newly appointed chiefs in the past
slaughtered a pregnant camel on top of their clans' ha mandas in order to legitimise their
leadership and power.
Chapter two explains how the harsh environmental conditions of Dar Zaghawa
and the lack of security in the past caused many uncertainties and led the Zaghawa to
consult various divinatory techniques to arrive at the hidden knowledge and the hazards
that might lie ahead. The various divinatory techniques practised by the Zaghawa are
also examined in detail in this chapter in addition to various forms of afflictions caused
by supernatural powers and their traditional healing devices.
Chapter three is devoted-to the introduction of Islam into the Zaghawa society.
It shows how the point at which Islam met the Zaghawa at first was such that it
appeared less alien to them, a fact which made it easy for them to accept the new
religion. This chapter furthermore examines the impact of Islam upon cosmology,
system of belief, objects of sanctity, divination, affliction and healing. It also explains
why Islamization brought about the sex division of religion and how the concept of
religious purity and pollution introduced by Islam has been interpreted by the fakis to
justify the discrimination against the mai .
Chapter four describes the Islamic ritual practices, notably the five pillars of
Islam and the ritual practices related to the life cycle, agricultural activities, purification
and reconciliation on the occasion of adultery and manslaughter. The main purpose of
this chapter is to discern how these general Islamic rituals have been influenced by the
particular setting of the Zaghawa environment.
Chapter five discusses and evaluates the effect of formal education, the
establishment of the new Sudanese state and formal peace keeping institutions, the
improvement of communications and medical services and the deterioration of
environmental conditions in Dar Zaghawa in facilitating religious change. The chapter
goes on to explain how the socioeconomic crises and political upheavals in Dar
Zaghawa in the sixties on the one hand and the complicity of the national political
parties with the Zaghawa chiefs on the other anguished the commoners and led many of
them to join the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jamaa Ansar al--Sunna al--Mohamediva
and demand the return to the pristine Islam and the application of the Islamic shari'a
law. It furthermore explains why the religious reformers, though they succeeded in
persuading the Zaghawa to accept the religious changes in some aspects of their lives,
failed to do so in many other aspects, notably the gender relations and the
discrimination against the mai.
The concluding chapter critically assesss and evaluates the existing literature on
conversion to Islam in Africa. The syncretism and the marginalization models, though
important, do not go far enough to explain why the Zaghawa continued to perform
their pre--Islamic rituals even when their belief changed. It suggests Fernandez's
model, which differentiates between the social consensus and cultural consensus, as
particularly useful for deeper analyses of the impact of Islam upon the Zaghawa
society.
1991-01-01T00:00:00ZMohamed-Salih, El Tigani MustafaThis thesis is about the traditional beliefs and the process of Islamization among
the Zaghawa. It examines Islam as understood and practised by the Zaghawa
society rather than the "universal model" of Islam or Islam as it is supposed to be.
Chapter one is concerned with the 'basic' cosmology, system of belief and objects of
sanctity among the Zaghawa. The Zaghawa gave the names of their ha mandas (sacred
mountains) to their territorial divisions and their newly appointed chiefs in the past
slaughtered a pregnant camel on top of their clans' ha mandas in order to legitimise their
leadership and power.
Chapter two explains how the harsh environmental conditions of Dar Zaghawa
and the lack of security in the past caused many uncertainties and led the Zaghawa to
consult various divinatory techniques to arrive at the hidden knowledge and the hazards
that might lie ahead. The various divinatory techniques practised by the Zaghawa are
also examined in detail in this chapter in addition to various forms of afflictions caused
by supernatural powers and their traditional healing devices.
Chapter three is devoted-to the introduction of Islam into the Zaghawa society.
It shows how the point at which Islam met the Zaghawa at first was such that it
appeared less alien to them, a fact which made it easy for them to accept the new
religion. This chapter furthermore examines the impact of Islam upon cosmology,
system of belief, objects of sanctity, divination, affliction and healing. It also explains
why Islamization brought about the sex division of religion and how the concept of
religious purity and pollution introduced by Islam has been interpreted by the fakis to
justify the discrimination against the mai .
Chapter four describes the Islamic ritual practices, notably the five pillars of
Islam and the ritual practices related to the life cycle, agricultural activities, purification
and reconciliation on the occasion of adultery and manslaughter. The main purpose of
this chapter is to discern how these general Islamic rituals have been influenced by the
particular setting of the Zaghawa environment.
Chapter five discusses and evaluates the effect of formal education, the
establishment of the new Sudanese state and formal peace keeping institutions, the
improvement of communications and medical services and the deterioration of
environmental conditions in Dar Zaghawa in facilitating religious change. The chapter
goes on to explain how the socioeconomic crises and political upheavals in Dar
Zaghawa in the sixties on the one hand and the complicity of the national political
parties with the Zaghawa chiefs on the other anguished the commoners and led many of
them to join the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jamaa Ansar al--Sunna al--Mohamediva
and demand the return to the pristine Islam and the application of the Islamic shari'a
law. It furthermore explains why the religious reformers, though they succeeded in
persuading the Zaghawa to accept the religious changes in some aspects of their lives,
failed to do so in many other aspects, notably the gender relations and the
discrimination against the mai.
The concluding chapter critically assesss and evaluates the existing literature on
conversion to Islam in Africa. The syncretism and the marginalization models, though
important, do not go far enough to explain why the Zaghawa continued to perform
their pre--Islamic rituals even when their belief changed. It suggests Fernandez's
model, which differentiates between the social consensus and cultural consensus, as
particularly useful for deeper analyses of the impact of Islam upon the Zaghawa
society.'Es una comunidad libre' : contesting the potential of indigenous communities in southeastern BoliviaGroke, Veronikahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/25492019-07-01T10:03:33Z2012-06-21T00:00:00ZThe thesis is a study of a Guaraní community (comunidad) situated in the Department of Santa Cruz in the southeastern lowlands of Bolivia. The thesis uses the concept of ‘comunidad’ as a focus of investigation. While this concept is one that is familiar and firmly embedded in contemporary discourses throughout Bolivia, the meanings which different people and interest groups attach to it and the purposes which they ascribe to it are far from unanimous. Apart from the physical and legal entity, comprising a group of people, the land on which they live, and the legal title for its ownership, a comunidad is a multifaceted and multilayered complex of diverging and sometimes competing ideas, desires and agendas. Questioning the concept of ‘comunidad’ in this way opens up new perspectives on what people are doing and why that could easily be overlooked in continuing to assume that we know what we are talking about when talking about a ‘comunidad indígena’ in Bolivia today. The thesis explores the case of Cañón de Segura by eliciting and bringing together the various claims and perspectives that impact on the lives of its inhabitants (comunarios). Starting with a historical overview to situate the comunidad within Bolivian and Guaraní history, the thesis moves into an ethnographic discussion of the comunarios’ own perceptions and meanings of ‘comunidad’, followed by an exploration of various outsiders’ perspectives on the same topic that impact on the comunarios’ lives in different ways. The aim of the thesis is to illustrate the overlap and entanglements between these different positions in order to show how the different perspectives on the meaning and purpose of a Guaraní ‘comunidad’ all contribute to shape the actual realities of people’s lives ‘on the ground’.
2012-06-21T00:00:00ZGroke, VeronikaThe thesis is a study of a Guaraní community (comunidad) situated in the Department of Santa Cruz in the southeastern lowlands of Bolivia. The thesis uses the concept of ‘comunidad’ as a focus of investigation. While this concept is one that is familiar and firmly embedded in contemporary discourses throughout Bolivia, the meanings which different people and interest groups attach to it and the purposes which they ascribe to it are far from unanimous. Apart from the physical and legal entity, comprising a group of people, the land on which they live, and the legal title for its ownership, a comunidad is a multifaceted and multilayered complex of diverging and sometimes competing ideas, desires and agendas. Questioning the concept of ‘comunidad’ in this way opens up new perspectives on what people are doing and why that could easily be overlooked in continuing to assume that we know what we are talking about when talking about a ‘comunidad indígena’ in Bolivia today. The thesis explores the case of Cañón de Segura by eliciting and bringing together the various claims and perspectives that impact on the lives of its inhabitants (comunarios). Starting with a historical overview to situate the comunidad within Bolivian and Guaraní history, the thesis moves into an ethnographic discussion of the comunarios’ own perceptions and meanings of ‘comunidad’, followed by an exploration of various outsiders’ perspectives on the same topic that impact on the comunarios’ lives in different ways. The aim of the thesis is to illustrate the overlap and entanglements between these different positions in order to show how the different perspectives on the meaning and purpose of a Guaraní ‘comunidad’ all contribute to shape the actual realities of people’s lives ‘on the ground’.The social reproduction of Jamaica Safar in Shashamane, EthiopiaGomes, Shelenehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/25482019-04-01T09:29:23Z2011-11-30T00:00:00ZSince the 1950s, men and women, mainly Rastafari from the West Indies, have moved as repatriates to Shashamane, Ethiopia. This is a spiritually and ideologically oriented journey to the promised land of Ethiopia (Africa) and to the land granted by His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I. Although migration across regions of the
global south is less common than migration from the global south to north, this move is even more distinct because it is not primarily motivated by economic concerns.
This thesis - the first in-depth ethnographic study of the repatriate
population - focuses on the conceptual and pragmatic ways in which repatriates and their Ethiopian-born children “rehome” this area of Shashamane that is now called Jamaica Safar (or village in the Amharic
language). There is a simultaneous Rasta identification of themselves as Ethiopians and as His Majesty’s people, which is often contested in legal and civic spheres, with a West Indian social inscription of
Shashamane. These dynamics have emerged from a Rastafari re-invention of personhood that was fostered in West Indian Creole society.
These ideas converge in a central concern with the inalienability of the land grant that is shared by repatriates, their children and Rastafari outside Ethiopia as well. Accordingly, the repatriate
population of Shashamane becomes the centre of international social and economic networks. The children born on this land thus demonstrate the success of their parents’ repatriation. They are the ones who will ensure the Rastafari presence there in perpetuity.
2011-11-30T00:00:00ZGomes, SheleneSince the 1950s, men and women, mainly Rastafari from the West Indies, have moved as repatriates to Shashamane, Ethiopia. This is a spiritually and ideologically oriented journey to the promised land of Ethiopia (Africa) and to the land granted by His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I. Although migration across regions of the
global south is less common than migration from the global south to north, this move is even more distinct because it is not primarily motivated by economic concerns.
This thesis - the first in-depth ethnographic study of the repatriate
population - focuses on the conceptual and pragmatic ways in which repatriates and their Ethiopian-born children “rehome” this area of Shashamane that is now called Jamaica Safar (or village in the Amharic
language). There is a simultaneous Rasta identification of themselves as Ethiopians and as His Majesty’s people, which is often contested in legal and civic spheres, with a West Indian social inscription of
Shashamane. These dynamics have emerged from a Rastafari re-invention of personhood that was fostered in West Indian Creole society.
These ideas converge in a central concern with the inalienability of the land grant that is shared by repatriates, their children and Rastafari outside Ethiopia as well. Accordingly, the repatriate
population of Shashamane becomes the centre of international social and economic networks. The children born on this land thus demonstrate the success of their parents’ repatriation. They are the ones who will ensure the Rastafari presence there in perpetuity.Epidemic events : state-formation, class struggle and biopolitics in three epidemic crises of modern ChinaLynteris, Christoshttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/21502021-07-05T12:53:48Z2010-06-25T00:00:00ZBased on extended research on Chinese medical and epidemiological archival material dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, and on six months of internship in epidemiology in Beijing’s Medical School and in Haidian District’s Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, this thesis explores the conjunction of three major epidemiological crises in modern Chinese history with processes of State formation: the 1911 Manchurian pneumonic plague, the 1952 germ-warfare, and the 2003 SARS outbreak. Analysing the three crises as Events in line with Alain Badiou’s epistemology it seeks to establish how different strategies of governmental fidelity to the imagined cause of each crisis have led to distinct modes of organisation and valorisation of the social: Republican China and its decline to fascism; the clash between professional revolutionaries and technocrats in Maoist China; and the emergence of the “Harmonious Society” of mass exploitation and repression today. This conjunction between State formation and epidemiological Events is explored with the use of Foucault’s genealogical method in a quest for a historical materialist approach that posits at its epicentre processes of class composition, decomposition and recomposition, and their contested enclosure by the governmental apparati of capture. The present thesis thus examines the three major epidemiological crises of modern China as forming grounds for biopolitical strategies that give rise to modes of subjectivation and circuits of debt/guilt within the context of the class struggle. And at the same time, it aims to create a new field of investigation for anthropology: the relation of State and Event, from a viewpoint that contests the accepted relation of event and structure expounded by Marshall Sahlins, proposing as the main object of this investigation the conjunction between necessity and will that can never be reduced either to the naturalism of historical determinism, nor to the culturalism of subjective contingency.
2010-06-25T00:00:00ZLynteris, ChristosBased on extended research on Chinese medical and epidemiological archival material dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, and on six months of internship in epidemiology in Beijing’s Medical School and in Haidian District’s Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, this thesis explores the conjunction of three major epidemiological crises in modern Chinese history with processes of State formation: the 1911 Manchurian pneumonic plague, the 1952 germ-warfare, and the 2003 SARS outbreak. Analysing the three crises as Events in line with Alain Badiou’s epistemology it seeks to establish how different strategies of governmental fidelity to the imagined cause of each crisis have led to distinct modes of organisation and valorisation of the social: Republican China and its decline to fascism; the clash between professional revolutionaries and technocrats in Maoist China; and the emergence of the “Harmonious Society” of mass exploitation and repression today. This conjunction between State formation and epidemiological Events is explored with the use of Foucault’s genealogical method in a quest for a historical materialist approach that posits at its epicentre processes of class composition, decomposition and recomposition, and their contested enclosure by the governmental apparati of capture. The present thesis thus examines the three major epidemiological crises of modern China as forming grounds for biopolitical strategies that give rise to modes of subjectivation and circuits of debt/guilt within the context of the class struggle. And at the same time, it aims to create a new field of investigation for anthropology: the relation of State and Event, from a viewpoint that contests the accepted relation of event and structure expounded by Marshall Sahlins, proposing as the main object of this investigation the conjunction between necessity and will that can never be reduced either to the naturalism of historical determinism, nor to the culturalism of subjective contingency.Kametsa asaiki : the pursuit of the 'good life' in an Ashaninka village (Peruvian Amazonia)Sarmiento Barletti, Juan Pablohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/21142019-04-01T09:32:18Z2011-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an ethnographic study of the pursuit of kametsa asaiki (‘the good life’) in
an Ashaninka village by the Bajo Urubamba River (Peruvian Amazonia). My study
centres on Ashaninka social organization in a context made difficult by the wake of
the Peruvian Internal War, the activities of extractive industries, and a series of
despotic decrees that have been passed by the Peruvian government. This is all
framed by a change in their social organization from living in small, separated
family-based settlements to one of living in villages.
This shift presents them with great problems when internal conflicts arise.
Whilst in the past settlements would have fissioned in order to avoid conflict, today
there are two related groups of reasons that lead them to want to live in centralised
communities. The first is their great desire for their children to go to school and the
importance they place on long-term cash-crops. The second is the encroachment of
the Peruvian State and private companies on their territory and lives which forces
them to stay together in order to resist and protect their territory and way of life.
I suggest that this change in organisation changes the rules of the game of
sociality. Contemporary Ashaninka life is centred on the pursuit of kametsa asaiki, a
philosophy of life they believe to have inherited from their ancestors that teaches
emotional restraint and the sharing of food in order to create the right type of
Ashaninka person. Yet, at present it also has new factors they believe allow them to
become ‘civilised’: school education, new forms of leadership and conflict resolution,
money, new forms of conflict resolution, intercultural health, and a strong political
federation to defend their right to pursue kametsa asaiki.
My thesis is an anthropological analysis of the 'audacious innovations' they
have developed to retake the pursuit of kametsa asaiki in the aftermath of the war. I
show that this ethos of living is not solely a communal project of conviviality but it
has become a symbol of resistance in their fight for the right to have rights in Peru.
2011-01-01T00:00:00ZSarmiento Barletti, Juan PabloThis thesis is an ethnographic study of the pursuit of kametsa asaiki (‘the good life’) in
an Ashaninka village by the Bajo Urubamba River (Peruvian Amazonia). My study
centres on Ashaninka social organization in a context made difficult by the wake of
the Peruvian Internal War, the activities of extractive industries, and a series of
despotic decrees that have been passed by the Peruvian government. This is all
framed by a change in their social organization from living in small, separated
family-based settlements to one of living in villages.
This shift presents them with great problems when internal conflicts arise.
Whilst in the past settlements would have fissioned in order to avoid conflict, today
there are two related groups of reasons that lead them to want to live in centralised
communities. The first is their great desire for their children to go to school and the
importance they place on long-term cash-crops. The second is the encroachment of
the Peruvian State and private companies on their territory and lives which forces
them to stay together in order to resist and protect their territory and way of life.
I suggest that this change in organisation changes the rules of the game of
sociality. Contemporary Ashaninka life is centred on the pursuit of kametsa asaiki, a
philosophy of life they believe to have inherited from their ancestors that teaches
emotional restraint and the sharing of food in order to create the right type of
Ashaninka person. Yet, at present it also has new factors they believe allow them to
become ‘civilised’: school education, new forms of leadership and conflict resolution,
money, new forms of conflict resolution, intercultural health, and a strong political
federation to defend their right to pursue kametsa asaiki.
My thesis is an anthropological analysis of the 'audacious innovations' they
have developed to retake the pursuit of kametsa asaiki in the aftermath of the war. I
show that this ethos of living is not solely a communal project of conviviality but it
has become a symbol of resistance in their fight for the right to have rights in Peru.Placing Paamese : locating concerns with place, gender and movement in VanuatuLind, Craighttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/19722018-01-04T13:03:00Z2011-06-01T00:00:00ZThis is a study of coming to know what it is to be Paamese. The work seeks to present an anthropological understanding of ontological concerns that constitute a Paamese perception of subjectivities. I take my lead from Paamese perceptions that the internal capacities of subjects or “things” (e.g. persons, villages, islands, and movement itself) are revealed through relations with others. This correlates with anthropology’s methodology of testing its analytical strategies through the ethnographic practices of others in order to reach more accurate representations. Paamese, as is common elsewhere in Vanuatu and Melanesia, have an extremely fluid attitude towards sociality and easily accommodate urban dwelling without leaving Paama behind. I suggest that a nuanced multi-positioned approach in which several aspects of Paamese sociality are considered from a point of limitation employed by Paamese to focus an event, such as a marriage exchange, will present a better understanding of how these subjectivities, that is Paamese people and Paama Island, adhere such that they do not part company wherever they go. Paamese suggest that each event should be considered as if following a single branch in the canopy of a tree – a scalable perception that offers the promise that a multi-faceted approach will reveal a replicable form. I take this approach to specificity seriously and employ a looping aesthetic, measi, adapted from Paamese sand-drawing in order to consider the shifting concerns expressed by Paamese perceptions of out (place), āmal (agnatic clans), sise (road), vatte (origin), ara (blood) and asi (bone). I suggest that these, parts, can be considered together as a holography for how to come to know what it is to be Paamese.
2011-06-01T00:00:00ZLind, CraigThis is a study of coming to know what it is to be Paamese. The work seeks to present an anthropological understanding of ontological concerns that constitute a Paamese perception of subjectivities. I take my lead from Paamese perceptions that the internal capacities of subjects or “things” (e.g. persons, villages, islands, and movement itself) are revealed through relations with others. This correlates with anthropology’s methodology of testing its analytical strategies through the ethnographic practices of others in order to reach more accurate representations. Paamese, as is common elsewhere in Vanuatu and Melanesia, have an extremely fluid attitude towards sociality and easily accommodate urban dwelling without leaving Paama behind. I suggest that a nuanced multi-positioned approach in which several aspects of Paamese sociality are considered from a point of limitation employed by Paamese to focus an event, such as a marriage exchange, will present a better understanding of how these subjectivities, that is Paamese people and Paama Island, adhere such that they do not part company wherever they go. Paamese suggest that each event should be considered as if following a single branch in the canopy of a tree – a scalable perception that offers the promise that a multi-faceted approach will reveal a replicable form. I take this approach to specificity seriously and employ a looping aesthetic, measi, adapted from Paamese sand-drawing in order to consider the shifting concerns expressed by Paamese perceptions of out (place), āmal (agnatic clans), sise (road), vatte (origin), ara (blood) and asi (bone). I suggest that these, parts, can be considered together as a holography for how to come to know what it is to be Paamese.Moral geographies in Kyrgyzstan : how pastures, dams and holy sites matter in striving for a good lifeFéaux de la Croix, Jeannehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/18622019-07-01T10:05:34Z2011-06-24T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an ethnography of how places like mountain pastures (jailoos), hydro-electric dams and holy sites (mazars) matter in striving for a good life. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in the Toktogul valley of Kyrgyzstan, this study contributes to theoretical questions in the anthropology of post-socialism, time, space, work and enjoyment. I use the term ‘moral geography’ to emphasize a spatial imaginary that is centred on ideas of ‘the good life’, both ethical and happy. This perspective captures an understanding of jailoos which connects food, health, wealth and beauty. In comparing attitudes towards a Soviet and post-Soviet dam, I reveal changes in the nature of the state, property and collective labour. People in Toktogul hold agentive places like mazars and non-personalized places like dams and jailoos apart, implying not one overarching philosophy of nature, but a world in which types of places have different gradations of object-ness and personhood.
I show how people use forms of commemoration as a means of establishing connections between people, claims on land and aspirations of ‘becoming cultured’. I demonstrate how people draw on repertoires of epic or Soviet heroism and mobility in conceiving their life story and agency in shaping events. Different times and places such as ‘eternal’ jailoos and Soviet dams are often collapsed as people derive personal authority from connections to them. Analysing accounts of collectivization and privatization I argue that the Soviet period is often treated as a ‘second tradition’ used to judge the present.
People also strive for ‘the good life’ through working practices that are closely linked to the Soviet experience, and yet differ from Marxist definitions of labour. The pervasively high value of work is fed from different, formally conflicting sources of moral authority such as Socialism, Islam and neo-liberal ideals of ‘entrepreneurship’. I discuss how parties, poetry and song bring together jakshylyk (goodness) as enjoyment and virtue. I show how song and poetry act as moral guides, how arman yearning is purposely enjoyed in Kyrgyz music and how it relates to nostalgia and nature imagery. The concept of ‘moral geography’ allows me to investigate how people strive for well-being, an investigation that is just as important as focusing on problem-solving and avoiding pain. It also allows an analysis of place and time that holds material interactions, moral ideals, economic and political dimensions in mind.
2011-06-24T00:00:00ZFéaux de la Croix, JeanneThis thesis is an ethnography of how places like mountain pastures (jailoos), hydro-electric dams and holy sites (mazars) matter in striving for a good life. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in the Toktogul valley of Kyrgyzstan, this study contributes to theoretical questions in the anthropology of post-socialism, time, space, work and enjoyment. I use the term ‘moral geography’ to emphasize a spatial imaginary that is centred on ideas of ‘the good life’, both ethical and happy. This perspective captures an understanding of jailoos which connects food, health, wealth and beauty. In comparing attitudes towards a Soviet and post-Soviet dam, I reveal changes in the nature of the state, property and collective labour. People in Toktogul hold agentive places like mazars and non-personalized places like dams and jailoos apart, implying not one overarching philosophy of nature, but a world in which types of places have different gradations of object-ness and personhood.
I show how people use forms of commemoration as a means of establishing connections between people, claims on land and aspirations of ‘becoming cultured’. I demonstrate how people draw on repertoires of epic or Soviet heroism and mobility in conceiving their life story and agency in shaping events. Different times and places such as ‘eternal’ jailoos and Soviet dams are often collapsed as people derive personal authority from connections to them. Analysing accounts of collectivization and privatization I argue that the Soviet period is often treated as a ‘second tradition’ used to judge the present.
People also strive for ‘the good life’ through working practices that are closely linked to the Soviet experience, and yet differ from Marxist definitions of labour. The pervasively high value of work is fed from different, formally conflicting sources of moral authority such as Socialism, Islam and neo-liberal ideals of ‘entrepreneurship’. I discuss how parties, poetry and song bring together jakshylyk (goodness) as enjoyment and virtue. I show how song and poetry act as moral guides, how arman yearning is purposely enjoyed in Kyrgyz music and how it relates to nostalgia and nature imagery. The concept of ‘moral geography’ allows me to investigate how people strive for well-being, an investigation that is just as important as focusing on problem-solving and avoiding pain. It also allows an analysis of place and time that holds material interactions, moral ideals, economic and political dimensions in mind.Moving through dance between New York and Dakar : ways of learning Senegalese 'Sabar' and the politics of participationBizas, Elenihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/18352021-09-21T12:09:05Z2010-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores a network of participants, dance students and teachers, who
travel between New York City and Dakar, Senegal, around the practice of West African
dance forms. Focusing on the Senegalese dance-rhythms Sabar, I joined this movement
and my fieldwork methodology included apprenticeship as a student. I explored
different learning environments of Sabar in New York and Dakar: the understandings
involved, how this movement is maintained and how it affects dance forms. The
methodological move enabled a comparative approach to research questions of learning
and performing, local aesthetics and notions of being.
This thesis discusses the role of the imagination in mobilizing students and
teachers to travel within this network. I explore how participants navigate through the
political geography of this movement, sustain the network, and how in turn the cultural
flow of Sabar is ‘punctuated’ by socio-economic relationships. Secondly, I explore the
understandings involved in each learning context, how these are negotiated and
contested on the dance floor and how they relate to broader socio-cultural discourses
and relationships that they reinforce or subvert. I argue that while different Sabar
settings cannot be understood as ‘bounded’ in as much as people and ideas circulate
through them, they are also distinct in that they produce different forms of Sabar.
The learning contexts provide the meeting grounds for alternative conceptions
of ‘dance’ and pedagogy. I explore how these notions are negotiated in relation to the
specific socio-cultural and economic environments in which they are located.
Specifically I analyse some common problems New York students face in learning and
performing Sabar and explore the reasons behind them: the complex connection
between movement and rhythm and the achievement of a specific kinaesthetic in
movement. I delineate the relationship between movement and rhythm in Sabar and the
importance of the aesthetic of improvisation. I argue that the prevalence of certain
paradigms of learning and ‘dance’ over others is related to the specific socio-economic
relationships of the participants. Specifically, an over-emphasis on movement distracts
from other important aspects in the performance of Sabar and I argue that skills need to
be understood as environed processes, malleable and shifting in relation to the
broader socio-economic settings that link the participants together.
2010-01-01T00:00:00ZBizas, EleniThis thesis explores a network of participants, dance students and teachers, who
travel between New York City and Dakar, Senegal, around the practice of West African
dance forms. Focusing on the Senegalese dance-rhythms Sabar, I joined this movement
and my fieldwork methodology included apprenticeship as a student. I explored
different learning environments of Sabar in New York and Dakar: the understandings
involved, how this movement is maintained and how it affects dance forms. The
methodological move enabled a comparative approach to research questions of learning
and performing, local aesthetics and notions of being.
This thesis discusses the role of the imagination in mobilizing students and
teachers to travel within this network. I explore how participants navigate through the
political geography of this movement, sustain the network, and how in turn the cultural
flow of Sabar is ‘punctuated’ by socio-economic relationships. Secondly, I explore the
understandings involved in each learning context, how these are negotiated and
contested on the dance floor and how they relate to broader socio-cultural discourses
and relationships that they reinforce or subvert. I argue that while different Sabar
settings cannot be understood as ‘bounded’ in as much as people and ideas circulate
through them, they are also distinct in that they produce different forms of Sabar.
The learning contexts provide the meeting grounds for alternative conceptions
of ‘dance’ and pedagogy. I explore how these notions are negotiated in relation to the
specific socio-cultural and economic environments in which they are located.
Specifically I analyse some common problems New York students face in learning and
performing Sabar and explore the reasons behind them: the complex connection
between movement and rhythm and the achievement of a specific kinaesthetic in
movement. I delineate the relationship between movement and rhythm in Sabar and the
importance of the aesthetic of improvisation. I argue that the prevalence of certain
paradigms of learning and ‘dance’ over others is related to the specific socio-economic
relationships of the participants. Specifically, an over-emphasis on movement distracts
from other important aspects in the performance of Sabar and I argue that skills need to
be understood as environed processes, malleable and shifting in relation to the
broader socio-economic settings that link the participants together.Health professionals and ethnic Pakistanis in Britain : risk, thalassaemia and audit cultureMurphy, Richardhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/17142019-04-01T09:29:38Z2005-01-01T00:00:00ZThe central theme or
`red-thread' that I
consider
in this thesis is the concept of risk as it is
perceived
by
and affects the two sides of
the medical encounter
-
in this instance
ethnic
Pakistanis
and
Health Professionals
-
in Britain. Each
side very often perceives risk quite
distinctively,
relating to the balance between the spiritual and temporal realms.
This is
particularly germane
in
matters to do
with possible congenital
defects
within the prenatal
realm
for the ethnic
Pakistani,
and predominantly
Muslim,
side of this encounter.
Thus
one
of the factors
considered
in this thesis is how
senses of
Islam impact
upon the two sides.
By
ethnic
Pakistanis Islam is
seen as central to all
life decisions,
whilst
Health Professionals
view
Islam
with some considerable trepidation, little
understanding
it
or
its
centrality to the
former's decision-making
processes. This is
particularly significant with regard to attitudes
to health
and
health
care.
In the initial
stages of the project
I had thought first
cousin
marriage
(FCM),
seen by
ethnic
Pakistanis
as desirable
and
by Health Professionals
as
putting ethnic
Pakistanis
at-risk to be
central to the argument,
but
concluded that concerns
around
FCM
were a
`red herring',
merely a trope for the tensions between the two sides -
at
once
both British
and at-risk
from
audit culture.
Although
no
longer
central,
FCM
remains a
viable touchstone in
consideration of the two sides' perceptions of genetic risk.
In this thesis
the medical encounter
between
ethnic
Pakistanis
and
Health Professionals is
performed
within the realm of the so called
New Genetics. Here the respective understandings of the
New Genetics
are
informed by the enculturation processes that shape the two sides' world
view.
Furthermore, I
will agree with
Lord Robert Winston's
and others' concern that any
attempt
to eradicate an adaptive genetic mutation,
in this instance, thalassaemia, from the
gene pool
is
not only undesirable
in the short term, but
also that such eradications may
have
an adverse, and
far
reaching, effect on whole population groups
in the future. The
main
thrust of my argument
is that audit culture not only compounds risk
for both
sides,
but
also
perpetuates institutional
racism within the National Health Service (NHS), by
promulgating
what
I have
called the language
myth.
That is to say that much
institutional
racism
is the
unwanted
by-product
of the NHS's
attempts to become
more patient centred and
its
continuing efforts to develop
systems of
best practice.
This
professionalisation process
within
the NHS
can
be
seen to impact
most strongly
in
relation to communication
-
particularly the claimed
language barrier between the two sides.
This `barrier' has worrying
policy
implications for
any meaningful communication
between the two sides, notably
relating to obtaining
informed
consent
from
ethnic
Pakistani
patients
-
with a resultant
increase in
risk
for
the two sides and clear economic consequences for the NHS.
2005-01-01T00:00:00ZMurphy, RichardThe central theme or
`red-thread' that I
consider
in this thesis is the concept of risk as it is
perceived
by
and affects the two sides of
the medical encounter
-
in this instance
ethnic
Pakistanis
and
Health Professionals
-
in Britain. Each
side very often perceives risk quite
distinctively,
relating to the balance between the spiritual and temporal realms.
This is
particularly germane
in
matters to do
with possible congenital
defects
within the prenatal
realm
for the ethnic
Pakistani,
and predominantly
Muslim,
side of this encounter.
Thus
one
of the factors
considered
in this thesis is how
senses of
Islam impact
upon the two sides.
By
ethnic
Pakistanis Islam is
seen as central to all
life decisions,
whilst
Health Professionals
view
Islam
with some considerable trepidation, little
understanding
it
or
its
centrality to the
former's decision-making
processes. This is
particularly significant with regard to attitudes
to health
and
health
care.
In the initial
stages of the project
I had thought first
cousin
marriage
(FCM),
seen by
ethnic
Pakistanis
as desirable
and
by Health Professionals
as
putting ethnic
Pakistanis
at-risk to be
central to the argument,
but
concluded that concerns
around
FCM
were a
`red herring',
merely a trope for the tensions between the two sides -
at
once
both British
and at-risk
from
audit culture.
Although
no
longer
central,
FCM
remains a
viable touchstone in
consideration of the two sides' perceptions of genetic risk.
In this thesis
the medical encounter
between
ethnic
Pakistanis
and
Health Professionals is
performed
within the realm of the so called
New Genetics. Here the respective understandings of the
New Genetics
are
informed by the enculturation processes that shape the two sides' world
view.
Furthermore, I
will agree with
Lord Robert Winston's
and others' concern that any
attempt
to eradicate an adaptive genetic mutation,
in this instance, thalassaemia, from the
gene pool
is
not only undesirable
in the short term, but
also that such eradications may
have
an adverse, and
far
reaching, effect on whole population groups
in the future. The
main
thrust of my argument
is that audit culture not only compounds risk
for both
sides,
but
also
perpetuates institutional
racism within the National Health Service (NHS), by
promulgating
what
I have
called the language
myth.
That is to say that much
institutional
racism
is the
unwanted
by-product
of the NHS's
attempts to become
more patient centred and
its
continuing efforts to develop
systems of
best practice.
This
professionalisation process
within
the NHS
can
be
seen to impact
most strongly
in
relation to communication
-
particularly the claimed
language barrier between the two sides.
This `barrier' has worrying
policy
implications for
any meaningful communication
between the two sides, notably
relating to obtaining
informed
consent
from
ethnic
Pakistani
patients
-
with a resultant
increase in
risk
for
the two sides and clear economic consequences for the NHS.Elastic selves and fluid cosmologies : Nahua resilience in a changing worldFeather, Conradhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/16902022-08-02T02:07:25Z2010-11-01T00:00:00ZIn May 1984, the Nahua, a Panoan speaking indigenous people living in a remote corner
of the Peruvian Amazon, experienced their ‘first contact’ with Peruvian national
society. 25 years later they appear to many observers to have ‘thrown away their
culture’ under pressure from the outside world. This thesis argues instead that these
changes were adopted by the Nahua for their own very good reasons and that these
transformations reflect greater continuity with the past than first appears.
The apparent lack of nostalgia that the Nahua have for the past instead reflects an
inherent capacity for flexibility. This flexibility is manifested at a collective level in the
frequent fissions of local groups and at an individual level in their susceptibility to
losing their sense of self. The thesis focuses on two key aspects of this flexibility.
The first is that the Nahua understand the site of their personal transformations to be the
body which they describe as ‘soft’. This ‘softness’ refers to its ability to incorporate
other worldly powers and become like the animals they eat or the people with whom
they co-reside. Nevertheless, this capacity also means they can become ‘other’ when
they live apart from their kin. This elasticity of selfhood is typical of many indigenous
Amazonian peoples but the Nahua sit at the more flexible end of this spectrum. This is
because they cultivate an attitude of radical hunger towards the outside world and place
relatively less importance on techniques of restraint and control.
The second aspect is the astonishing flexibility of Nahua worldviews. This is because
their cosmologies are less a fixed set of facts and more a shamanic technique of
knowing the unknown. These techniques help the Nahua understand the mysteries of
the spirit world, their dreams and the world of Peruvians.
In conclusion, it is the ‘softness’ of their bodies, the elasticity of their selves and the
flexibility of their cosmologies that explain the extraordinary resilience of the Nahua in
the face of dramatic transformations in the surrounding world.
2010-11-01T00:00:00ZFeather, ConradIn May 1984, the Nahua, a Panoan speaking indigenous people living in a remote corner
of the Peruvian Amazon, experienced their ‘first contact’ with Peruvian national
society. 25 years later they appear to many observers to have ‘thrown away their
culture’ under pressure from the outside world. This thesis argues instead that these
changes were adopted by the Nahua for their own very good reasons and that these
transformations reflect greater continuity with the past than first appears.
The apparent lack of nostalgia that the Nahua have for the past instead reflects an
inherent capacity for flexibility. This flexibility is manifested at a collective level in the
frequent fissions of local groups and at an individual level in their susceptibility to
losing their sense of self. The thesis focuses on two key aspects of this flexibility.
The first is that the Nahua understand the site of their personal transformations to be the
body which they describe as ‘soft’. This ‘softness’ refers to its ability to incorporate
other worldly powers and become like the animals they eat or the people with whom
they co-reside. Nevertheless, this capacity also means they can become ‘other’ when
they live apart from their kin. This elasticity of selfhood is typical of many indigenous
Amazonian peoples but the Nahua sit at the more flexible end of this spectrum. This is
because they cultivate an attitude of radical hunger towards the outside world and place
relatively less importance on techniques of restraint and control.
The second aspect is the astonishing flexibility of Nahua worldviews. This is because
their cosmologies are less a fixed set of facts and more a shamanic technique of
knowing the unknown. These techniques help the Nahua understand the mysteries of
the spirit world, their dreams and the world of Peruvians.
In conclusion, it is the ‘softness’ of their bodies, the elasticity of their selves and the
flexibility of their cosmologies that explain the extraordinary resilience of the Nahua in
the face of dramatic transformations in the surrounding world.Sounds of satire, echoes of madness : performance and evaluation in Cefalonia, GreecePollatou, Efpraxiahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10162020-11-17T03:08:29Z2009-08-05T00:00:00ZThis thesis is about the construction of 'satire' as an exclusive practice among the Cefalonian and hence proposes the term satiricity (satirikotita). It explores the construction of the category of the Cefalonian "madman" by means of dialogics between performance and evaluation. It is observed that the relation depends on three principles that obtain among audience members and a performer: conditioning the performance, participation in and observation of the performance and evaluation of it. Being one of the few anthropological studies on the Ionian islands of Greece, this thesis aims to contribute to the anthropology of the Ionian islands and of Cefalonia in particular. It looks at the relation between a town and a village on the ground of teasing events and refutes the argument of satire as an urban phenomenon only. It sets the elementary principles towards anthropology of satire and emphasizes the importance of studying everyday teasing events. It also contributes to understanding a 'native' researcher's presence in different ways. Satiricity is seen as a 'par excellence' feature that Cefalonians have. No matter if Cefalonia is a part of the Greek nation-state and people follow 'modern Greek culture', they still employ satiricity as a way of distancing themselves from Greeks. 'Distance' is forged on the basis of absolute exclusion of Greeks from having, practising and understanding satiricity in the way that Cefalonians do. The Conclusions leave the ground open for more investigation on teasing events and application of such viewpoints around other areas of the island, and of the Ionian islands or other Greek islands. I also point to studies looking at island and mainland teasing events and potential differences. After all, we need to examine not only how people construct the claim on the exclusivity of 'satire'. We need to examine how such a claim is applied, supported or contrasted and possibly rejected when Cefalonians engage with other Greeks away from the island.
2009-08-05T00:00:00ZPollatou, EfpraxiaThis thesis is about the construction of 'satire' as an exclusive practice among the Cefalonian and hence proposes the term satiricity (satirikotita). It explores the construction of the category of the Cefalonian "madman" by means of dialogics between performance and evaluation. It is observed that the relation depends on three principles that obtain among audience members and a performer: conditioning the performance, participation in and observation of the performance and evaluation of it. Being one of the few anthropological studies on the Ionian islands of Greece, this thesis aims to contribute to the anthropology of the Ionian islands and of Cefalonia in particular. It looks at the relation between a town and a village on the ground of teasing events and refutes the argument of satire as an urban phenomenon only. It sets the elementary principles towards anthropology of satire and emphasizes the importance of studying everyday teasing events. It also contributes to understanding a 'native' researcher's presence in different ways. Satiricity is seen as a 'par excellence' feature that Cefalonians have. No matter if Cefalonia is a part of the Greek nation-state and people follow 'modern Greek culture', they still employ satiricity as a way of distancing themselves from Greeks. 'Distance' is forged on the basis of absolute exclusion of Greeks from having, practising and understanding satiricity in the way that Cefalonians do. The Conclusions leave the ground open for more investigation on teasing events and application of such viewpoints around other areas of the island, and of the Ionian islands or other Greek islands. I also point to studies looking at island and mainland teasing events and potential differences. After all, we need to examine not only how people construct the claim on the exclusivity of 'satire'. We need to examine how such a claim is applied, supported or contrasted and possibly rejected when Cefalonians engage with other Greeks away from the island.A grammar of ResígaroAllin, Trevor R.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/10122019-04-01T09:31:15Z1976-01-01T00:00:00ZThe thesis gives a description within the framework of tagmemic theory of Resigaro, a South American Indian language
of the Huitoto group, spoken in the region between the Amazon and the Putumayo, in north-eastern Peru.
The Introduction reviews critically previous work on the language, and sets out modifications in tagmemic theory which
it is claimed avoid circularity and repetition and improve the
description. Principal among these is a strict separation of
the three modes of Contrast, Variation and Distribution, and the use of multiplication of derive structures.
Part I of the thesis describes the first two levels of the
Phonological Hierarchy - Phoneme level and Syllable level.
Part II describes the grammatical hierarchy, in which the following levels are set up:
Root
Stem
Word
(Group)
(Piece)
Phrase
Clause
Sentence
(Group and Piece are sub-levels affecting only the Verb class.) Each Level is described in a separate chapter, starting at the lowest level (Root). Each class (Verb, Noun, Pronoun, etc.) is described in turn at each level at which it has elements. At Phrase level, Phrases are described as being either Endocentric or Axis-Relator. Endocentric Phrases (Verb, Noun, and Numeral) are described first. At Clause level, the description of Clause structure is preceded by a description of Clause-level tagmemes - first the nuclear, and then the peripheral tagmemes. It is indicated that this simplifies the presentation of Clause structure. Under Clause structure, the Declarative clause is described first, and other Clause classes are derived from this, viz.: Interrogative, Imperative, Nominalized and Relativized. The description of the Contrast and Variation modes of Sentence level is followed by an analysis of the first section of a text.
Appendix I presents a lexicon of Resigaro in two parts: Part I is Resigaro-Spanish-English, and Part II is Spanish-Resigaro.
Appendix II presents a 376-word four-language comparative word list for Resigaro, Bora, Ocaina and Huitoto Muinane
1976-01-01T00:00:00ZAllin, Trevor R.The thesis gives a description within the framework of tagmemic theory of Resigaro, a South American Indian language
of the Huitoto group, spoken in the region between the Amazon and the Putumayo, in north-eastern Peru.
The Introduction reviews critically previous work on the language, and sets out modifications in tagmemic theory which
it is claimed avoid circularity and repetition and improve the
description. Principal among these is a strict separation of
the three modes of Contrast, Variation and Distribution, and the use of multiplication of derive structures.
Part I of the thesis describes the first two levels of the
Phonological Hierarchy - Phoneme level and Syllable level.
Part II describes the grammatical hierarchy, in which the following levels are set up:
Root
Stem
Word
(Group)
(Piece)
Phrase
Clause
Sentence
(Group and Piece are sub-levels affecting only the Verb class.) Each Level is described in a separate chapter, starting at the lowest level (Root). Each class (Verb, Noun, Pronoun, etc.) is described in turn at each level at which it has elements. At Phrase level, Phrases are described as being either Endocentric or Axis-Relator. Endocentric Phrases (Verb, Noun, and Numeral) are described first. At Clause level, the description of Clause structure is preceded by a description of Clause-level tagmemes - first the nuclear, and then the peripheral tagmemes. It is indicated that this simplifies the presentation of Clause structure. Under Clause structure, the Declarative clause is described first, and other Clause classes are derived from this, viz.: Interrogative, Imperative, Nominalized and Relativized. The description of the Contrast and Variation modes of Sentence level is followed by an analysis of the first section of a text.
Appendix I presents a lexicon of Resigaro in two parts: Part I is Resigaro-Spanish-English, and Part II is Spanish-Resigaro.
Appendix II presents a 376-word four-language comparative word list for Resigaro, Bora, Ocaina and Huitoto MuinaneThe astronomy of Andean myth : the history of a cosmologySullivan, William F.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/10112019-04-01T09:30:54Z1986-01-01T00:00:00ZThe paper aims to show that Andean myth, on one level, represents a technical language recording astronomical observations of precession and, at the same time, an historical record of simultaneous social and celestial transformations.
Topographic and architectural terms of Andean myth are interpreted as a metaphor for the organisation of and locations on the celestial sphere. Via ethnoastronmical data, mythical animals are identified as stars and placed on the celestial sphere according to their "topographical " location. Tested in the planetarium, these "arrays" generate clusters of dates - 200 B.C. and 650. A. D. Analysis of the names of Wiraqocha and Manco Capac indicates they represent Saturn and Jupiter and that their mythical meeting represents their conjunction in 650 A.D.
The astronomy of Andean myth is then used as an historical tool to examine how the Andean priest-astronomers recorded the simultaneous creation of the ayllu and of this distinctive astronomical system about 200 B.C. The idea that the agricultural ayllu, with its double descent system stressing the importance of paternity, represents a transformation of society from an earlier matrilineal/horticultural era is examined in light of the sexual
imagery employed in myth. Wiraqocha’s androgyny and the division of the celestial sphere
into male (ecliptic) and -female(celestial equator = “earth” ) are interpreted as cosmological validations of the new social structure.
1986-01-01T00:00:00ZSullivan, William F.The paper aims to show that Andean myth, on one level, represents a technical language recording astronomical observations of precession and, at the same time, an historical record of simultaneous social and celestial transformations.
Topographic and architectural terms of Andean myth are interpreted as a metaphor for the organisation of and locations on the celestial sphere. Via ethnoastronmical data, mythical animals are identified as stars and placed on the celestial sphere according to their "topographical " location. Tested in the planetarium, these "arrays" generate clusters of dates - 200 B.C. and 650. A. D. Analysis of the names of Wiraqocha and Manco Capac indicates they represent Saturn and Jupiter and that their mythical meeting represents their conjunction in 650 A.D.
The astronomy of Andean myth is then used as an historical tool to examine how the Andean priest-astronomers recorded the simultaneous creation of the ayllu and of this distinctive astronomical system about 200 B.C. The idea that the agricultural ayllu, with its double descent system stressing the importance of paternity, represents a transformation of society from an earlier matrilineal/horticultural era is examined in light of the sexual
imagery employed in myth. Wiraqocha’s androgyny and the division of the celestial sphere
into male (ecliptic) and -female(celestial equator = “earth” ) are interpreted as cosmological validations of the new social structure.The making of real people : an interpretation of a morality-centred theory of sociality, livelihood and selfhood among the Muinane (Colombian Amazon)Londoño Sulkin, Carlos Davidhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10102019-04-01T09:30:41Z2000-01-01T00:00:00ZIn this monograph I interpret a wide-ranging native theory of sociality of
the Muinane, an indigenous group of the Colombian Amazon. This theory
simultaneously addresses their livelihood activities, some aspects of their
phenomenological experience, their bodily form, their group identity, and their
views on the achievement of a uniquely human, morally sociable way of life.
The Muinane understand their thoughts/emotions as well as their bodies to be
material in origin and character. Proper bodies and thoughts/emotions are
made out of ritual substances and foodstuffs, which have divine subjectivities
and agencies of their own, and which ‘sound’ through people, establishing
people's subjectivities and agencies. Such subjectivities and agencies lead to
the communal achievement of `coolness', the state of convivial sociability,
tranquility, abundance and generalised good health that constitutes ideal
community life. Because they share substances, kin are also understood to
share bodily features and thoughts/emotions. Their consubstantiality leads to
mutual love and to an intersubjectivity that enables them to live well together,
without unseemly contestations or differences in ultimate moral purposes.
However, the material character of bodies and thoughts/emotions is
also a source of danger. Animals and other evil beings can sabotage proper
community life by replacing people's moral substances with their own false
ones, causing people to experience mad, envious, angry and even sorcerous
thoughts/emotions, and to suffer from weakening or lethal bodily diseases.
It is the moral obligation and inclination of properly constituted human
beings to make new human beings, by intentionally forging their bodies, their
thoughts/emotions and their ‘baskets of knowledge.’ They must do this by
transforming evil substances into proper substances, through work and
through everyday or sporadic rituals.
The matters addressed in this monograph -native theories of sociality,
of self, of livelihood and so on- are of central pertinence to ongoing
discussions in Amazonianist anthropology.
2000-01-01T00:00:00ZLondoño Sulkin, Carlos DavidIn this monograph I interpret a wide-ranging native theory of sociality of
the Muinane, an indigenous group of the Colombian Amazon. This theory
simultaneously addresses their livelihood activities, some aspects of their
phenomenological experience, their bodily form, their group identity, and their
views on the achievement of a uniquely human, morally sociable way of life.
The Muinane understand their thoughts/emotions as well as their bodies to be
material in origin and character. Proper bodies and thoughts/emotions are
made out of ritual substances and foodstuffs, which have divine subjectivities
and agencies of their own, and which ‘sound’ through people, establishing
people's subjectivities and agencies. Such subjectivities and agencies lead to
the communal achievement of `coolness', the state of convivial sociability,
tranquility, abundance and generalised good health that constitutes ideal
community life. Because they share substances, kin are also understood to
share bodily features and thoughts/emotions. Their consubstantiality leads to
mutual love and to an intersubjectivity that enables them to live well together,
without unseemly contestations or differences in ultimate moral purposes.
However, the material character of bodies and thoughts/emotions is
also a source of danger. Animals and other evil beings can sabotage proper
community life by replacing people's moral substances with their own false
ones, causing people to experience mad, envious, angry and even sorcerous
thoughts/emotions, and to suffer from weakening or lethal bodily diseases.
It is the moral obligation and inclination of properly constituted human
beings to make new human beings, by intentionally forging their bodies, their
thoughts/emotions and their ‘baskets of knowledge.’ They must do this by
transforming evil substances into proper substances, through work and
through everyday or sporadic rituals.
The matters addressed in this monograph -native theories of sociality,
of self, of livelihood and so on- are of central pertinence to ongoing
discussions in Amazonianist anthropology.Nahuatl in the Huasteca Hidalguense : a case study in the sociology of languageStiles, Nevillehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10092019-04-01T09:29:14Z1982-01-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis examines the vitality of Hidalgo Nahuatl (HN) in the
communities of Jaltocan, Panacaxtlan, Santa Cruz, Santa Teresa
and Zohuala in the Huasteca Hidalguense, Mexico.
The research, conducted in Mexico and St. Andrews University
from 1976-1982, applies an analysis of HN within the framework of
the Sociology of Language and Dependency Theory, thereby using a
multi-disciplinary approach. Through an investigation of the historical,
social, cultural and economic factors related to HN, the
latter is embedded in its reality.
HN is shown to be originally a language of dependency and oppression,
supported by a long mestizo tradition of "caciquismo". It is
demonstrated that an increasing number of Spanish (S) monolinguals,
together with other socio-economic factors, is encouraging Nahuas
to bilingualize and S:: =A. is fast becoming the new language of dependency.
The Hidalgo Nahuas possess practical reasons for the acquisition
of S., these being to solve their daily problems - especially
land tenancy -, to communicate with the mestizo out-group and to
undertake trading with non-HN speakers. However, the Nahuas are
not surrendering their native language as they bilingualize, but
rather, tend to limit its usage to native Nahua contexts and speakers.
HN has become important to the Nahuas in order to demonstrate
their ethnic identity and territoriality.
The introduction of government projects to the communities, such as
the Castellanizacion project or bilingual-bicultural education, are
shown to be theoretically bilingual in approach, but fail to take
into account sufficiently the regional Indian language in the praxis.
The stable maintenance of HN is highlighted by statistical results
from the word-count of recorded texts, documents and publications
and the range of morphological phenomena affecting S. words
in HN is described with examples from the Corpus.
The linguistic interference from S. in HN is located within Dependency
Theory and this author suggests the use of the term dependency
word rather than loan word and dependency language, thus implying
a diachronic sociological process which is reflected in HN.
Extended Texts are offered as evidence of the linguistic standard
of HN and attitudes of Nahuas towards their language are presented.
The final conclusion is that modern HN is a viable, vital and
functional language at the time of undertaking this research and
demonstrates a frequent usage by a large number of speakers. HN
has still not entered into:. -avital process of language death, as
is the case in other Nahuatl-speaking regions of Mexico, and is
still being maintained, particularly at community level, by adults
and children alike.
1982-01-01T00:00:00ZStiles, NevilleThis thesis examines the vitality of Hidalgo Nahuatl (HN) in the
communities of Jaltocan, Panacaxtlan, Santa Cruz, Santa Teresa
and Zohuala in the Huasteca Hidalguense, Mexico.
The research, conducted in Mexico and St. Andrews University
from 1976-1982, applies an analysis of HN within the framework of
the Sociology of Language and Dependency Theory, thereby using a
multi-disciplinary approach. Through an investigation of the historical,
social, cultural and economic factors related to HN, the
latter is embedded in its reality.
HN is shown to be originally a language of dependency and oppression,
supported by a long mestizo tradition of "caciquismo". It is
demonstrated that an increasing number of Spanish (S) monolinguals,
together with other socio-economic factors, is encouraging Nahuas
to bilingualize and S:: =A. is fast becoming the new language of dependency.
The Hidalgo Nahuas possess practical reasons for the acquisition
of S., these being to solve their daily problems - especially
land tenancy -, to communicate with the mestizo out-group and to
undertake trading with non-HN speakers. However, the Nahuas are
not surrendering their native language as they bilingualize, but
rather, tend to limit its usage to native Nahua contexts and speakers.
HN has become important to the Nahuas in order to demonstrate
their ethnic identity and territoriality.
The introduction of government projects to the communities, such as
the Castellanizacion project or bilingual-bicultural education, are
shown to be theoretically bilingual in approach, but fail to take
into account sufficiently the regional Indian language in the praxis.
The stable maintenance of HN is highlighted by statistical results
from the word-count of recorded texts, documents and publications
and the range of morphological phenomena affecting S. words
in HN is described with examples from the Corpus.
The linguistic interference from S. in HN is located within Dependency
Theory and this author suggests the use of the term dependency
word rather than loan word and dependency language, thus implying
a diachronic sociological process which is reflected in HN.
Extended Texts are offered as evidence of the linguistic standard
of HN and attitudes of Nahuas towards their language are presented.
The final conclusion is that modern HN is a viable, vital and
functional language at the time of undertaking this research and
demonstrates a frequent usage by a large number of speakers. HN
has still not entered into:. -avital process of language death, as
is the case in other Nahuatl-speaking regions of Mexico, and is
still being maintained, particularly at community level, by adults
and children alike.The hearer, the hunter and the agouti head : aspects of intercommunication and conviviality among the Pa'ikwené (Palikur) of French GuianaPasses, Alanhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10082019-07-01T10:12:40Z1998-01-01T00:00:00ZThe thesis is in the broadest terms an anthropological exploration of
intercommunication; it concerns concepts and practices of speech and
hearing among a Lowland Amazonian people, the Pa'ikwene, concentrating
particularly on the community of Deuxieme Village Esperance in southern
Guyane (French Guiana). A significant aspect of the subject is the
axiological one, i. e., the moral and aesthetic values attaching to proper
dialogic, and consequently social, relations - or what Ingold describes
(1986: 141) as the "conversation that is social life".
Revealing the speech of ordinary people to be as `powerful' in its way as that
of chiefs, the study addresses the instrumentality of speaking and hearing in
the creation and maintenance of sociality. Essentially, I argue that
intersubjective communication does not so much `imply' Pa'ikwene society
(Levi-Strauss 1973: 390) as construct it as a sociable, pleasurable and
egalitarian entity; that it is, in short, one of the fundamental `tools for
conviviality' (Illich 1973).
While the role of language in the process of society has long been
recognised by anthropology, and comprehensively investigated, tht of
listening to it seems, perhaps because of the more `private' nature of the act,
not to have enjoyed the same level of sociological interest. Given this
imbalance, special emphasis is laid on native audition as embodied by the
cultural phenomenon of "Tchimap", "to hear-listen-understand", and its use
in three key spheres, the political, economic and magico-religious.
One central issue deals with the agency and perceived value of "good
hearing" in the generation of good relations between humans, and of
productive ones between humans and non-humans. Another major theme,
of relevance to the ongoing theoretical debate on 'individualismcollectivism',
involves the efficacy of "Tchimap" as a performative means of
personal autonomy, within and as part of, rather than in opposition to, the
group.
1998-01-01T00:00:00ZPasses, AlanThe thesis is in the broadest terms an anthropological exploration of
intercommunication; it concerns concepts and practices of speech and
hearing among a Lowland Amazonian people, the Pa'ikwene, concentrating
particularly on the community of Deuxieme Village Esperance in southern
Guyane (French Guiana). A significant aspect of the subject is the
axiological one, i. e., the moral and aesthetic values attaching to proper
dialogic, and consequently social, relations - or what Ingold describes
(1986: 141) as the "conversation that is social life".
Revealing the speech of ordinary people to be as `powerful' in its way as that
of chiefs, the study addresses the instrumentality of speaking and hearing in
the creation and maintenance of sociality. Essentially, I argue that
intersubjective communication does not so much `imply' Pa'ikwene society
(Levi-Strauss 1973: 390) as construct it as a sociable, pleasurable and
egalitarian entity; that it is, in short, one of the fundamental `tools for
conviviality' (Illich 1973).
While the role of language in the process of society has long been
recognised by anthropology, and comprehensively investigated, tht of
listening to it seems, perhaps because of the more `private' nature of the act,
not to have enjoyed the same level of sociological interest. Given this
imbalance, special emphasis is laid on native audition as embodied by the
cultural phenomenon of "Tchimap", "to hear-listen-understand", and its use
in three key spheres, the political, economic and magico-religious.
One central issue deals with the agency and perceived value of "good
hearing" in the generation of good relations between humans, and of
productive ones between humans and non-humans. Another major theme,
of relevance to the ongoing theoretical debate on 'individualismcollectivism',
involves the efficacy of "Tchimap" as a performative means of
personal autonomy, within and as part of, rather than in opposition to, the
group.Quechua religious terms in the departments of Apurimac and San Martin, PeruMcIntosh, G. Stewarthttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10072019-04-01T09:29:51Z1976-01-01T00:00:00ZMy thesis "Quechua Religious Terms in the Departments of
Apurimac and San Martin, Peru" deals with the problem
of changing meaning-loads of Quechua religious terms.
I chose the departments (counties) of Apurimac and
San Martin as representative of a montana (jungle)
and sierra (mountain) Quechua culture respectively.
The purpose of the thesis is to show though the analysis
from a corpus of one hundred and thirty-two terms that
Quechua religious terms still carry much of tine nearing
load they had before the Spanish conquest despite more
than four hundred years of religious and other cultural
pressures. This study also highlights the difficulties
and unresearched areas in the fields of dialectology
and folklore of the Quechua culture, a culture that is
still very much the life of some ten million people
in Latin America today.
1976-01-01T00:00:00ZMcIntosh, G. StewartMy thesis "Quechua Religious Terms in the Departments of
Apurimac and San Martin, Peru" deals with the problem
of changing meaning-loads of Quechua religious terms.
I chose the departments (counties) of Apurimac and
San Martin as representative of a montana (jungle)
and sierra (mountain) Quechua culture respectively.
The purpose of the thesis is to show though the analysis
from a corpus of one hundred and thirty-two terms that
Quechua religious terms still carry much of tine nearing
load they had before the Spanish conquest despite more
than four hundred years of religious and other cultural
pressures. This study also highlights the difficulties
and unresearched areas in the fields of dialectology
and folklore of the Quechua culture, a culture that is
still very much the life of some ten million people
in Latin America today.Evangelization in the writings of Latin American liberation theologiansPope-Levison, Priscillahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10062019-04-01T09:29:49Z1988-01-01T00:00:00ZThis dissertation investigates evangelization in the writings of
ten Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians who were chosen due to
their interaction with the major themes of Liberation Theology and their
interest in evangelization. The six Roman Catholic theologians include
Leonardo Boff, Segundo Gulilea, Gustavo Gutihrrez, Archbishop Oscar
Romero, Juan Luis Segundo, and Jon Sobrino. The four Protestant
theologians include Mortimer Arias, Emilio Castro, Orlando Costas, and
Jose Miguez Bonino. Along with a chapter on each theologian, two separate
chapters are devoted to a comparison of the Roman Catholics as a
group and the Protestants as a group. The concluding chapter collects
the findings and presents a common view of evangelization in Latin
American Liberation Theology. In addition, this thesis is set in its
historical context with studies of evangelization in four Roman Catholic
Documents – Vatican II, Medellin, Evanglii Nuntiandi, and Puebla, and
WCC documents tram the New Delhi Assembly (1961) to the Vancouver
Assembly (1983).
This study demonstrates that evangelization is a central theme of
Latin American Liberation Theology. Both Roman Catholic and Protestant
liberation theologians devote a great deal of attention to this topic
which serves for them as a bridge between theology and praxis. In the
theological realm, evangelization is founded on the concept of the reign
of God. III the arena of praxis, evangelization is centered on proclamation and action.
In addition, evangelization stands as a theme around
which Roman Catholic and Protestant liberation theologians unite; the
similarities between them are significant and numerous.
These theologians present a view of evangelization which has the
potential to alter traditional understandings and existing structures of
evangelization. Their concept of evangelization pioneers new frontiers
as it interacts with liberation, the poor, denunciation, action, collective conversion,
and a comprehensive view of the reign of God.
1988-01-01T00:00:00ZPope-Levison, PriscillaThis dissertation investigates evangelization in the writings of
ten Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians who were chosen due to
their interaction with the major themes of Liberation Theology and their
interest in evangelization. The six Roman Catholic theologians include
Leonardo Boff, Segundo Gulilea, Gustavo Gutihrrez, Archbishop Oscar
Romero, Juan Luis Segundo, and Jon Sobrino. The four Protestant
theologians include Mortimer Arias, Emilio Castro, Orlando Costas, and
Jose Miguez Bonino. Along with a chapter on each theologian, two separate
chapters are devoted to a comparison of the Roman Catholics as a
group and the Protestants as a group. The concluding chapter collects
the findings and presents a common view of evangelization in Latin
American Liberation Theology. In addition, this thesis is set in its
historical context with studies of evangelization in four Roman Catholic
Documents – Vatican II, Medellin, Evanglii Nuntiandi, and Puebla, and
WCC documents tram the New Delhi Assembly (1961) to the Vancouver
Assembly (1983).
This study demonstrates that evangelization is a central theme of
Latin American Liberation Theology. Both Roman Catholic and Protestant
liberation theologians devote a great deal of attention to this topic
which serves for them as a bridge between theology and praxis. In the
theological realm, evangelization is founded on the concept of the reign
of God. III the arena of praxis, evangelization is centered on proclamation and action.
In addition, evangelization stands as a theme around
which Roman Catholic and Protestant liberation theologians unite; the
similarities between them are significant and numerous.
These theologians present a view of evangelization which has the
potential to alter traditional understandings and existing structures of
evangelization. Their concept of evangelization pioneers new frontiers
as it interacts with liberation, the poor, denunciation, action, collective conversion,
and a comprehensive view of the reign of God.The biblical concept of conversion and its social implications from a Latin American perspectiveMahecha, Guidobertohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10052019-04-01T09:32:09Z1991-01-01T00:00:00ZThis work presents a concept of conversion using the
researches of Liberation theologians and the relation of
Jesus to four groups in the Synoptics.
In chapter one, the main concern is the hermeneutical
problem as it defines the kind of emphasis the
interpretation of the Bible will support. Liberation
theology focuses on its context as the key aspect for a
practical interpretation.
In chapter two six Liberation theologians are studied with
a focus on the concept of conversion. All of them criticize
the type of conversion that has produced a Christianity
centered on spiritual features and disregarding the Latin
American situation.
In chapter three the situation of Palestine in Jesus' time
is described and the political, economic, and religious
situation is explored. The aim of this chapter is to show
that Jesus was born and lived under political, economic, and
religious oppression.
In chapter four the relationship of Jesus to four groups
is stated. In relation to the Pharisees, two aspects are
considered: that the table-fellowship of Jesus with the
outcasts produced a confrontation with the Pharisees; and
that, at least one time, Jesus talked about overriding the
Law because of the Kingdom of God. In relation to the
religious authorities, Jesus prophetically rejected the
Temple and Its system. In relation to the Roman authorities,
Jesus established that all things belong to God and that
loyalty to any government must be relative. In relation to
the rich and the poor, Jesus stressed through hard criticism
of riches that the Good News are preferentially to the poor.
In the conclusion, using "the relation of relationship"
model of C. Boff, it is stated that the concept of
conversion of Liberation theologians with social, economic
and political implications, is based on the Scriptures and
it is the best solution for Christianity in an oppressive
situation.
1991-01-01T00:00:00ZMahecha, GuidobertoThis work presents a concept of conversion using the
researches of Liberation theologians and the relation of
Jesus to four groups in the Synoptics.
In chapter one, the main concern is the hermeneutical
problem as it defines the kind of emphasis the
interpretation of the Bible will support. Liberation
theology focuses on its context as the key aspect for a
practical interpretation.
In chapter two six Liberation theologians are studied with
a focus on the concept of conversion. All of them criticize
the type of conversion that has produced a Christianity
centered on spiritual features and disregarding the Latin
American situation.
In chapter three the situation of Palestine in Jesus' time
is described and the political, economic, and religious
situation is explored. The aim of this chapter is to show
that Jesus was born and lived under political, economic, and
religious oppression.
In chapter four the relationship of Jesus to four groups
is stated. In relation to the Pharisees, two aspects are
considered: that the table-fellowship of Jesus with the
outcasts produced a confrontation with the Pharisees; and
that, at least one time, Jesus talked about overriding the
Law because of the Kingdom of God. In relation to the
religious authorities, Jesus prophetically rejected the
Temple and Its system. In relation to the Roman authorities,
Jesus established that all things belong to God and that
loyalty to any government must be relative. In relation to
the rich and the poor, Jesus stressed through hard criticism
of riches that the Good News are preferentially to the poor.
In the conclusion, using "the relation of relationship"
model of C. Boff, it is stated that the concept of
conversion of Liberation theologians with social, economic
and political implications, is based on the Scriptures and
it is the best solution for Christianity in an oppressive
situation.When sadness is beautiful : a study of the place of rationality and emotions within the social life of the Àve de JesusCampos, Roberta Bivar Carneirohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10042019-04-01T09:32:16Z2000-01-01T00:00:00ZThe ethnographic object of study of my thesis is a group of penitents, called ‘Ave de
Jesus’, that dwells in the hinterlands of Northeast Brazil. As many other groups and
penitents of this area they have a strong devotion to Padre Cicero -a deceased priest who
founded the city in which they live, Juazeiro do Norte - who they believe to be Jesus
himself. In fact, according to them, all the events of the Bible there in Juazeiro do Norte,
such that they live in a biblical time, the Bible being their actual history which should
culminate in destruction - A final end to the world.
The Ave de Jesus have incorporated into their form of life the ways of being and relating to
the world of those missionaries and religious leaders from the past, such as Padre Ibiapina,
Antonio Conselheiro, Padre Cicero, and many ‘beatos’ who wandered throughout the
‘Sertao’* preaching penance and charity. Although these religious images make a lot of
sense for those who live in such a harsh area as the ‘Sertoes’, there is no doubt that they
are also in conflict with the mainstream system of interpretation of reality.
In my thesis I explore how the biblical images take part in the construction and negotiation
of truth and meaning, and how they work as references for acting, thinking and ‘feeling’.
Because these biblical images are invariably related to moral sentiments - such as
compassion, generosity, mercy, commiseration and a highly moral evaluation of the
experience of suffering - that underlies the way of life of many penitents in Juazeiro, my
thesis focuses on the social role of emotion in building up truth and creating sociability.
The Chapter I provides the Introduction in which is given a bibliographical review on
messianic and millenarian movements and pilgrimage, and points to my own theoretical
choice. It is also in the introduction that I discuss the issue of rationality, ideology and
narratives related to the problem of my research and the methodological approach.
In Chapter III provide an overall ethnography of penance within the surrounds of Juazeiro
do Norte in the past and present.
In Chapter III I first introduce a brief ethnography of the Ave de Jesus.
In Chapter IV I explore the situation of conflict between systems of interpretation within
which Master Jose - the leader of the Ave de Jesus - finds himself. The subject of
discussion in this chapter is the role of the affective and beauty in negotiating meaning and
constructing truth.
In Chapter VI dwell upon Emotions. In this chapter I provide a discussion concerning the
importance of emotions in understanding the way of life of many penitents in Juazeiro do
Norte, with special attention to the Ave de Jesus. Another subject of discussion is what an
emotion is about and their relation to action and thought. In my ethnography and
interpretation of emotions I have focused on those emotions which are cognitively stressed
by the Ave de Jesus, such as suffering, compassion, mercy, etc. which underlies their form
of life.
In Chapter VI I provide a discussion on how images of charity are related to an ideal image
of society -a Utopia. By going deeper into the relation between images of suffering,
poverty and mendicancy I explore how the Ave de Jesus creates a sociality based on
generosity, hospitality and sharing whereby they realise a messianic expectation.
In the Conclusion I have tried to answer the main task of my thesis, that is, to provide an
understanding of how sadness is beautiful. Through all the issues elected to for discussion
in each chapter I intend to give support to my interpretation of the role and importance of
emotions within the social life of the Ave de Jesus.
*The semi-arid backlands of Northeast Brazil
2000-01-01T00:00:00ZCampos, Roberta Bivar CarneiroThe ethnographic object of study of my thesis is a group of penitents, called ‘Ave de
Jesus’, that dwells in the hinterlands of Northeast Brazil. As many other groups and
penitents of this area they have a strong devotion to Padre Cicero -a deceased priest who
founded the city in which they live, Juazeiro do Norte - who they believe to be Jesus
himself. In fact, according to them, all the events of the Bible there in Juazeiro do Norte,
such that they live in a biblical time, the Bible being their actual history which should
culminate in destruction - A final end to the world.
The Ave de Jesus have incorporated into their form of life the ways of being and relating to
the world of those missionaries and religious leaders from the past, such as Padre Ibiapina,
Antonio Conselheiro, Padre Cicero, and many ‘beatos’ who wandered throughout the
‘Sertao’* preaching penance and charity. Although these religious images make a lot of
sense for those who live in such a harsh area as the ‘Sertoes’, there is no doubt that they
are also in conflict with the mainstream system of interpretation of reality.
In my thesis I explore how the biblical images take part in the construction and negotiation
of truth and meaning, and how they work as references for acting, thinking and ‘feeling’.
Because these biblical images are invariably related to moral sentiments - such as
compassion, generosity, mercy, commiseration and a highly moral evaluation of the
experience of suffering - that underlies the way of life of many penitents in Juazeiro, my
thesis focuses on the social role of emotion in building up truth and creating sociability.
The Chapter I provides the Introduction in which is given a bibliographical review on
messianic and millenarian movements and pilgrimage, and points to my own theoretical
choice. It is also in the introduction that I discuss the issue of rationality, ideology and
narratives related to the problem of my research and the methodological approach.
In Chapter III provide an overall ethnography of penance within the surrounds of Juazeiro
do Norte in the past and present.
In Chapter III I first introduce a brief ethnography of the Ave de Jesus.
In Chapter IV I explore the situation of conflict between systems of interpretation within
which Master Jose - the leader of the Ave de Jesus - finds himself. The subject of
discussion in this chapter is the role of the affective and beauty in negotiating meaning and
constructing truth.
In Chapter VI dwell upon Emotions. In this chapter I provide a discussion concerning the
importance of emotions in understanding the way of life of many penitents in Juazeiro do
Norte, with special attention to the Ave de Jesus. Another subject of discussion is what an
emotion is about and their relation to action and thought. In my ethnography and
interpretation of emotions I have focused on those emotions which are cognitively stressed
by the Ave de Jesus, such as suffering, compassion, mercy, etc. which underlies their form
of life.
In Chapter VI I provide a discussion on how images of charity are related to an ideal image
of society -a Utopia. By going deeper into the relation between images of suffering,
poverty and mendicancy I explore how the Ave de Jesus creates a sociality based on
generosity, hospitality and sharing whereby they realise a messianic expectation.
In the Conclusion I have tried to answer the main task of my thesis, that is, to provide an
understanding of how sadness is beautiful. Through all the issues elected to for discussion
in each chapter I intend to give support to my interpretation of the role and importance of
emotions within the social life of the Ave de Jesus.
*The semi-arid backlands of Northeast BrazilFertile words : aspects of language and sociality among Yanomami people of VenezuelaRubio, Javier Carrerahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10032019-04-01T09:32:20Z2004-01-01T00:00:00ZIn the first part of the thesis (Chapters I to 7)1 discuss two Yanomami myths of
origin, namely the myth of the origin of the night, and the myth of the master of
banana plants. While drawing heavily on Lizot's ethnographical and linguistic
work, my analysis of the myth will be embedded within two interconnected
debates of present concern to anthropology: On the one hand, the strong
linkage between the poetics of myth narration and the poetics of the everyday
life. To better explore this relationship I will also drawn on Overing's recent work
on the fundamental importance of understanding the political philosophy that
pervades such linkage. On the other hand there is also the important role that
the world of the felt, the senses and passions play in Yanomami conceptions
and practices of sociality.
In part 2 of the thesis, I deal with the issue of Yanomami warfare by describing
Yanomami people's understanding of warfare. In doing this, I endeavour to
develop a shift from the anthropologist's theories of war among the Yanomami
to the Yanomami's own theories about both peace and its failure. War and
conflict are addressed here from the point of view of the Yanomami aesthetics
of their own convivial relations and sociality, along with its multiple oral
expressions. I demonstrate that Yanomami people have their own (strong)
theories about what is conducive to peace and war and how these theories are
grounded in moral and political values attached to a particular Yanomami
aesthetics of egalitarianism. In doing this, I explore the way Lizot emphasises
the dialectic between Yanomami conceptions of peace and warfare.
Furthermore, through an exploration of the linkage Lizot establishes between
Yanomami warfare and their morality, I wish to shed new light on the political
dimensions of their conflicts and the place of warfare in their culturally specific
aesthetics of egalitarian relationships.
Part 3 of the thesis (chapters 9, 10, 11) deals with the Yanomami elders'
speech, a mode of communication that has been almost neglected in other
previous works. After having discussed various topics (myth and the everyday,
Yanomami warfare) through which various aspects of Yanomami moral and
political philosophy can be grasped, in this last part of the thesis I show the
strong linkage between such philosophy and this type of speech. The elders'
speech is dealt with in various parts of the thesis and also in various ways. First,
and departing from the way a myth of origin explicitly makes references to it, I
illustrate, the way Yanomami people conceive of this type of speech. I do this by
describing, following Hymes' (1981,2003) insights, the way in which the myth
teller "describes" this speech in his narrative. Second, in Chapter 3, I make a
brief description of the speech and in Chapters 9, 10, and 11 I provide
fragments of the speech of an elder that I transcribed and analysed.
2004-01-01T00:00:00ZRubio, Javier CarreraIn the first part of the thesis (Chapters I to 7)1 discuss two Yanomami myths of
origin, namely the myth of the origin of the night, and the myth of the master of
banana plants. While drawing heavily on Lizot's ethnographical and linguistic
work, my analysis of the myth will be embedded within two interconnected
debates of present concern to anthropology: On the one hand, the strong
linkage between the poetics of myth narration and the poetics of the everyday
life. To better explore this relationship I will also drawn on Overing's recent work
on the fundamental importance of understanding the political philosophy that
pervades such linkage. On the other hand there is also the important role that
the world of the felt, the senses and passions play in Yanomami conceptions
and practices of sociality.
In part 2 of the thesis, I deal with the issue of Yanomami warfare by describing
Yanomami people's understanding of warfare. In doing this, I endeavour to
develop a shift from the anthropologist's theories of war among the Yanomami
to the Yanomami's own theories about both peace and its failure. War and
conflict are addressed here from the point of view of the Yanomami aesthetics
of their own convivial relations and sociality, along with its multiple oral
expressions. I demonstrate that Yanomami people have their own (strong)
theories about what is conducive to peace and war and how these theories are
grounded in moral and political values attached to a particular Yanomami
aesthetics of egalitarianism. In doing this, I explore the way Lizot emphasises
the dialectic between Yanomami conceptions of peace and warfare.
Furthermore, through an exploration of the linkage Lizot establishes between
Yanomami warfare and their morality, I wish to shed new light on the political
dimensions of their conflicts and the place of warfare in their culturally specific
aesthetics of egalitarian relationships.
Part 3 of the thesis (chapters 9, 10, 11) deals with the Yanomami elders'
speech, a mode of communication that has been almost neglected in other
previous works. After having discussed various topics (myth and the everyday,
Yanomami warfare) through which various aspects of Yanomami moral and
political philosophy can be grasped, in this last part of the thesis I show the
strong linkage between such philosophy and this type of speech. The elders'
speech is dealt with in various parts of the thesis and also in various ways. First,
and departing from the way a myth of origin explicitly makes references to it, I
illustrate, the way Yanomami people conceive of this type of speech. I do this by
describing, following Hymes' (1981,2003) insights, the way in which the myth
teller "describes" this speech in his narrative. Second, in Chapter 3, I make a
brief description of the speech and in Chapters 9, 10, and 11 I provide
fragments of the speech of an elder that I transcribed and analysed.The application of geomatic technologies in an indigenous context : Amazonian Indians and indigenous land rightsMenell, Davidhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/10002019-07-01T10:12:39Z2003-01-01T00:00:00ZIndigenous people have employed Western analogue techniques (maps, charts, etc) to
support their land rights ever since their traditional territories came under threat.
Although indigenous groups utilise such tools there is still a significant divide between
the epistemological conception of these analogue techniques and the ontology of the
indigenous people. This research looks at one of the latest technologies to be utilised by
indigenous peoples, that of geomatics technologies. It examines their design and
application using the analytical techniques of anthropology juxtaposed with the
geographical methodologies. Using both the literature and three case studies drawing
from fieldwork conducted in the Peruvian Amazonian I argue that although previous
analogue techniques carried a certain epistemological baggage, they were effectively
neutral and did not impact of the ontology of the indigenous peoples. Geomatics
technologies are not neutral and carry more than just baggage, so they are not so simply
appropriated. Indigenous conceptions of landscape are not compatible with the current
design of geomatics technologies but indigenous federations are increasingly employing
them. The indigenous federation along with non-governmental organisations adopt the
geomatics technologies because of their perceived authority in land rights and their
applications in land management and saving cultural heritage. The State recognises this
authority because the design and output of geomatics conforms to its legal system.
However, indigenous peoples have a different agenda and conception of land rights.
Their agenda is based on revitalising their heritage and land rights derived through self-determination.
This research reveals such issues of power, politics and authenticity
behind its application and the ontological and epistemological philosophy of its design.
2003-01-01T00:00:00ZMenell, DavidIndigenous people have employed Western analogue techniques (maps, charts, etc) to
support their land rights ever since their traditional territories came under threat.
Although indigenous groups utilise such tools there is still a significant divide between
the epistemological conception of these analogue techniques and the ontology of the
indigenous people. This research looks at one of the latest technologies to be utilised by
indigenous peoples, that of geomatics technologies. It examines their design and
application using the analytical techniques of anthropology juxtaposed with the
geographical methodologies. Using both the literature and three case studies drawing
from fieldwork conducted in the Peruvian Amazonian I argue that although previous
analogue techniques carried a certain epistemological baggage, they were effectively
neutral and did not impact of the ontology of the indigenous peoples. Geomatics
technologies are not neutral and carry more than just baggage, so they are not so simply
appropriated. Indigenous conceptions of landscape are not compatible with the current
design of geomatics technologies but indigenous federations are increasingly employing
them. The indigenous federation along with non-governmental organisations adopt the
geomatics technologies because of their perceived authority in land rights and their
applications in land management and saving cultural heritage. The State recognises this
authority because the design and output of geomatics conforms to its legal system.
However, indigenous peoples have a different agenda and conception of land rights.
Their agenda is based on revitalising their heritage and land rights derived through self-determination.
This research reveals such issues of power, politics and authenticity
behind its application and the ontological and epistemological philosophy of its design.The two shamans and the owner of the cattle : alterity, storytelling and shamanism amongst the Angaité of the Paraguayan ChacoVillagra Carron, Rodrigo Juanhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/9652019-04-01T09:32:11Z2010-06-01T00:00:00ZMy thesis examines from an ethnographic account how history has been made, told and interpreted by the Angaité people of the Chaco since the Paraguayan nation-state effectively carried out the colonization of this territory in the 19th century until the present day. The key elements of this account are the Angaité’s notions and practices on alterity, storytelling and shamanism and how they interplay with one another.
I explore the notions of alterity and its counterpart similarity in the context of multiple material transactions in which the Angaité engage both among themselves and with outsiders. I also examine the inseparable socio-moral evaluations attached to such transactions. I show how certain transactions such as exchange or commoditisation do not necessarily conflict with good social relations. Nevertheless, the closest relationships – preferably evoked in kinship terms - are constantly constructed by the combination of several practices including sharing, pooling, cohabitation and companionship and the relational morality that underpins them.
This relational morality, I argue, is both inscribed and enacted through the telling of Nanek Any’a narratives –“Old news/events”. I analyze some of these narratives in order to show how the Angaité people interpret the consequences of the colonization of the Chaco. For this I provide an intelligible context for the Nanek Any’a that may otherwise appear contradictory or incomprehensible to a non-Angaité listener. The Angaité’s versions of history compared to the official accounts challenge the simplistic of the Angaité as “acculturated” and a homogenous indigenous people and situate them as main actors of their own lives. Rather than the Angaité being the victims of history the Nanek Any’a emphasize that it was the mistakes and failing of their ancestors in their original encounter with the Paraguayans that resulted in an unbalanced relationship with the latter in socio-economic terms. In addition to this, I describe in the light of the historical processes undergone in the lives of the Angaité, how the shamanic discourses and capacities and Angaité cosmology have changed. I explore how they have constantly incorporated external elements, and thus such shamanic elements pervades contemporary areas of life and interactions that include not only the paradigmatic indigenous shaman, but unusual figures such as pastors, powerful outsiders and leaders.
2010-06-01T00:00:00ZVillagra Carron, Rodrigo JuanMy thesis examines from an ethnographic account how history has been made, told and interpreted by the Angaité people of the Chaco since the Paraguayan nation-state effectively carried out the colonization of this territory in the 19th century until the present day. The key elements of this account are the Angaité’s notions and practices on alterity, storytelling and shamanism and how they interplay with one another.
I explore the notions of alterity and its counterpart similarity in the context of multiple material transactions in which the Angaité engage both among themselves and with outsiders. I also examine the inseparable socio-moral evaluations attached to such transactions. I show how certain transactions such as exchange or commoditisation do not necessarily conflict with good social relations. Nevertheless, the closest relationships – preferably evoked in kinship terms - are constantly constructed by the combination of several practices including sharing, pooling, cohabitation and companionship and the relational morality that underpins them.
This relational morality, I argue, is both inscribed and enacted through the telling of Nanek Any’a narratives –“Old news/events”. I analyze some of these narratives in order to show how the Angaité people interpret the consequences of the colonization of the Chaco. For this I provide an intelligible context for the Nanek Any’a that may otherwise appear contradictory or incomprehensible to a non-Angaité listener. The Angaité’s versions of history compared to the official accounts challenge the simplistic of the Angaité as “acculturated” and a homogenous indigenous people and situate them as main actors of their own lives. Rather than the Angaité being the victims of history the Nanek Any’a emphasize that it was the mistakes and failing of their ancestors in their original encounter with the Paraguayans that resulted in an unbalanced relationship with the latter in socio-economic terms. In addition to this, I describe in the light of the historical processes undergone in the lives of the Angaité, how the shamanic discourses and capacities and Angaité cosmology have changed. I explore how they have constantly incorporated external elements, and thus such shamanic elements pervades contemporary areas of life and interactions that include not only the paradigmatic indigenous shaman, but unusual figures such as pastors, powerful outsiders and leaders.By being human : an anthropological inquiry into the dimension and potential of consciousness in the context of spiritual practiceLenk, Sonjahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/9602019-01-16T12:55:02Z2009-01-01T00:00:00ZThe research explores the concept of human consciousness and its being experienced in a
particular social context, focusing on consciousness’s ‘highest potential’ as described in
both ancient Buddhist Philosophy and more recent spiritual teachings. The main attention
is on the individual’s emotional and mental experience of ‘conventional’ and ‘ultimate’
reality as taught by these traditions and the possible transformation of consciousness they
might initiate.
Two years of fieldwork was carried out at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, which
is a spiritual educational institution, offering a four-year training to become a healer. The
School emphasis is on the human individual and his or her inherent existential power to
transform and transcend limitations or delusions, focusing on the process of self-
transformation. Being human in the eyes of the School is seen as an endless potential for
growth, creativity, the capacity to love, and about learning to become fully responsible
for one’s own life and happiness. The thesis explores the effect that this particular
understanding of human potential has in the quotidian existence of the trainee and her or
his social relations.
Methodologically the study is based in phenomenological anthropology. This approach
here implies that life cannot be understood through the conceptual or systematic study of
its outward forms. Therefore it places conscious experience at the centre of its
investigation, rather than disengaged objectivity. By employing the first-person
perspective and undertaking part of the training myself, I hope to do justice to the
inherently subjective dimension of consciousness and to gain as deep an understanding as
possible of the processes of its transformation. The thesis thus includes subjective
personal experience as primary data, and understands being objective in the sense of
being open and without bias to both internal and external experience, giving the
‘perennial wisdom’ of spiritual traditions the same status as approved scientific laws.
2009-01-01T00:00:00ZLenk, SonjaThe research explores the concept of human consciousness and its being experienced in a
particular social context, focusing on consciousness’s ‘highest potential’ as described in
both ancient Buddhist Philosophy and more recent spiritual teachings. The main attention
is on the individual’s emotional and mental experience of ‘conventional’ and ‘ultimate’
reality as taught by these traditions and the possible transformation of consciousness they
might initiate.
Two years of fieldwork was carried out at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, which
is a spiritual educational institution, offering a four-year training to become a healer. The
School emphasis is on the human individual and his or her inherent existential power to
transform and transcend limitations or delusions, focusing on the process of self-
transformation. Being human in the eyes of the School is seen as an endless potential for
growth, creativity, the capacity to love, and about learning to become fully responsible
for one’s own life and happiness. The thesis explores the effect that this particular
understanding of human potential has in the quotidian existence of the trainee and her or
his social relations.
Methodologically the study is based in phenomenological anthropology. This approach
here implies that life cannot be understood through the conceptual or systematic study of
its outward forms. Therefore it places conscious experience at the centre of its
investigation, rather than disengaged objectivity. By employing the first-person
perspective and undertaking part of the training myself, I hope to do justice to the
inherently subjective dimension of consciousness and to gain as deep an understanding as
possible of the processes of its transformation. The thesis thus includes subjective
personal experience as primary data, and understands being objective in the sense of
being open and without bias to both internal and external experience, giving the
‘perennial wisdom’ of spiritual traditions the same status as approved scientific laws.Kinship and the saturation of life among the Kuna of PanamáMargiotti, Margheritahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/8912019-04-01T09:32:14Z2010-05-01T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an ethnographic analysis of kinship among the Kuna of the San Blas Archipelago of eastern Panamá, which focuses on the creation of bodies and persons. San Blas island villages are characterized by a compact layout and a burgeoning demographic concentration in relation to space. Despite land is available on surrounding mainland areas, the Kuna continue living in nucleated villages, emphasizing kinship as the value of a life in spatial and social concentration. By describing quotidian life in one Kuna community, this thesis considers what it means to live in concentration from a Kuna perspective, and how wellbeing is created through daily practices and rituals aimed at contrasting the social disengagement, that people consider an effect of domestic splitting, the ramification of collateral ties, and illnesses inflicted by invisible pathogenic beings.
My analysis focuses on two main lines of enquiry: 1) the progression of social relations from close to distant. Beginning from the house, where the bodies of co-residents are made consubstantial through commensality, the thesis analyses marriageability as the management of social distance, and the celebration of communal drinking festivals as the re-patterning of relations with different types of non-kin (e.g. non co-resident kin, the dead, and pathogenic spirits) for the regeneration of fertility and wellbeing. 2) It focuses on the person and discusses how adults make sense of babies and processes of body and kinship making in relation to non-human beings.
By describing how ritual and micro-quotidian practices operate according to patterns of density and repetition, this thesis demonstrates that concentration and saturation are the core notions of sociality and personhood for the Kuna. The thesis argues that saturation is interior to the ongoing creation of kinship.
2010-05-01T00:00:00ZMargiotti, MargheritaThis thesis is an ethnographic analysis of kinship among the Kuna of the San Blas Archipelago of eastern Panamá, which focuses on the creation of bodies and persons. San Blas island villages are characterized by a compact layout and a burgeoning demographic concentration in relation to space. Despite land is available on surrounding mainland areas, the Kuna continue living in nucleated villages, emphasizing kinship as the value of a life in spatial and social concentration. By describing quotidian life in one Kuna community, this thesis considers what it means to live in concentration from a Kuna perspective, and how wellbeing is created through daily practices and rituals aimed at contrasting the social disengagement, that people consider an effect of domestic splitting, the ramification of collateral ties, and illnesses inflicted by invisible pathogenic beings.
My analysis focuses on two main lines of enquiry: 1) the progression of social relations from close to distant. Beginning from the house, where the bodies of co-residents are made consubstantial through commensality, the thesis analyses marriageability as the management of social distance, and the celebration of communal drinking festivals as the re-patterning of relations with different types of non-kin (e.g. non co-resident kin, the dead, and pathogenic spirits) for the regeneration of fertility and wellbeing. 2) It focuses on the person and discusses how adults make sense of babies and processes of body and kinship making in relation to non-human beings.
By describing how ritual and micro-quotidian practices operate according to patterns of density and repetition, this thesis demonstrates that concentration and saturation are the core notions of sociality and personhood for the Kuna. The thesis argues that saturation is interior to the ongoing creation of kinship.Shades of Jewishness : the creation and maintenance of a liberal Jewish community in post-Shoah GermanyKranz, Danielahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/8722019-04-01T09:30:42Z2009-01-01T00:00:00ZThis PhD thesis focuses on the creation and maintenance of the liberal Jewish
community in present day Cologne, Germany. The community has the telling name
Gescher LaMassoret, which translates into „Bridge to Tradition.‟ The name gives away
that this specific community, its individual members and its struggles cannot be
understood without the socio-historic context of Germany and the Holocaust. Although
this Jewish community is not a community of Holocaust survivors, the dichotomy
Jewish-German takes various shapes within the community and surfaces in the
narratives of the individual members. These narratives reflect the uniqueness of each
individual in the community. While this is a truism, this individual uniqueness is a key
element in Gescher LaMassoret, whose membership consists of people from various
countries who have various native languages. Furthermore, the community comprises
members of Jewish descent as well as Jews of conversion who are of German, non-
Jewish parentage. Due to the aftermaths of the Holocaust and the fact that Gescher LaMassoret houses a vast internal diversity, the creation of this community which lacks
any tradition happens through mixing and meshing the life-stories and other narratives
of the members, which flow into the collective narrative of the community. On the
surface, the narratives of the individual members seem in conflict, they even contradict
each other, which means that the narrative of the community is in constant tension.
However, under the dissimilarities on the surface of the individual narratives hide
similarities in terms of shared values and attitudes, which allow for enough overlaps to
create a community by way of braiding a collective narrative, which offers the
members to experience a 'felt ethnicity.'
2009-01-01T00:00:00ZKranz, DanielaThis PhD thesis focuses on the creation and maintenance of the liberal Jewish
community in present day Cologne, Germany. The community has the telling name
Gescher LaMassoret, which translates into „Bridge to Tradition.‟ The name gives away
that this specific community, its individual members and its struggles cannot be
understood without the socio-historic context of Germany and the Holocaust. Although
this Jewish community is not a community of Holocaust survivors, the dichotomy
Jewish-German takes various shapes within the community and surfaces in the
narratives of the individual members. These narratives reflect the uniqueness of each
individual in the community. While this is a truism, this individual uniqueness is a key
element in Gescher LaMassoret, whose membership consists of people from various
countries who have various native languages. Furthermore, the community comprises
members of Jewish descent as well as Jews of conversion who are of German, non-
Jewish parentage. Due to the aftermaths of the Holocaust and the fact that Gescher LaMassoret houses a vast internal diversity, the creation of this community which lacks
any tradition happens through mixing and meshing the life-stories and other narratives
of the members, which flow into the collective narrative of the community. On the
surface, the narratives of the individual members seem in conflict, they even contradict
each other, which means that the narrative of the community is in constant tension.
However, under the dissimilarities on the surface of the individual narratives hide
similarities in terms of shared values and attitudes, which allow for enough overlaps to
create a community by way of braiding a collective narrative, which offers the
members to experience a 'felt ethnicity.'Relations that unite and divide : a study of Freedom of Information legislation and transparency in ScotlandJohn, Gemmahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/7512019-07-01T10:13:25Z2009-06-23T00:00:00ZThis research (the first long-term ethnographic study of FOI in Britain) investigates concepts at the heart of FOI - transparency, trust, secrecy, truth, private, public, power and agency. Eighteen months participant observation fieldwork, alongside policy-makers, practitioners, and end-users facilitated in depth, study of the radical subject-object transformations that FOI requires, and the aesthetics that underpin it.
The introduction of FOI entailed a 'culture change' - from a culture of secrecy to one of disclosure - driven, in Scotland, by the Scottish Information Commissioner through conferences. These were an opportunity for practitioners to come into new knowledge about the Act, their shared knowledge dissolving the divisions between them. But new divisions then opened between practitioners and colleagues; culture change being in the replication of a form of a relationship that previously lay between government and citizens.
In their replicated form, individual practitioners disappeared - were made 'transparent' - only to reappear on being differentiated, leaving them acutely aware of the personal relations this fissure disclosed, and throwing into sharp question a theory of people's division as indicative of their 'secrecy'. Transparency, here, depended on whether people were divided or combined - acting in their own capacity, or that of the organization.
While making personal relations absent from new disclosures was necessary for FOI compliance, this concealment hid a complex network of relations, and turned knowledge into 'information'. Yet the division between information and knowledge was not crisp: end-users continued to read practitioners' personal relations in disclosed information, thus relations were both absent from and implied in the information released.
Whether information was public (and accessible) depended on the undifferentiated status of those who created, handled, or were the subjects of, information. As people came into new knowledge, invoking their divided or common footing, they alternated between appearing 'private' or 'public' - person or thing - a division between individuals reflecting a division within each of them.
2009-06-23T00:00:00ZJohn, GemmaThis research (the first long-term ethnographic study of FOI in Britain) investigates concepts at the heart of FOI - transparency, trust, secrecy, truth, private, public, power and agency. Eighteen months participant observation fieldwork, alongside policy-makers, practitioners, and end-users facilitated in depth, study of the radical subject-object transformations that FOI requires, and the aesthetics that underpin it.
The introduction of FOI entailed a 'culture change' - from a culture of secrecy to one of disclosure - driven, in Scotland, by the Scottish Information Commissioner through conferences. These were an opportunity for practitioners to come into new knowledge about the Act, their shared knowledge dissolving the divisions between them. But new divisions then opened between practitioners and colleagues; culture change being in the replication of a form of a relationship that previously lay between government and citizens.
In their replicated form, individual practitioners disappeared - were made 'transparent' - only to reappear on being differentiated, leaving them acutely aware of the personal relations this fissure disclosed, and throwing into sharp question a theory of people's division as indicative of their 'secrecy'. Transparency, here, depended on whether people were divided or combined - acting in their own capacity, or that of the organization.
While making personal relations absent from new disclosures was necessary for FOI compliance, this concealment hid a complex network of relations, and turned knowledge into 'information'. Yet the division between information and knowledge was not crisp: end-users continued to read practitioners' personal relations in disclosed information, thus relations were both absent from and implied in the information released.
Whether information was public (and accessible) depended on the undifferentiated status of those who created, handled, or were the subjects of, information. As people came into new knowledge, invoking their divided or common footing, they alternated between appearing 'private' or 'public' - person or thing - a division between individuals reflecting a division within each of them.Syntactic relations in San Martin QuechuaHowkins, Angelahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/5292019-07-01T10:16:00Z1977-01-01T00:00:00ZLinguistic description has been described as "the application of a particular linguistic theory to a selected field of linguistic phenomena". The thesis presented here offers a partial application of Axiomatic Functionalism, (partial because its concern is with syntax only), to data collected on the San Martín dialect of Quechua.
Proportionate to the whole body of Quechua studies, there has been little produced on the syntax of any Quechua dialect. Most syntactic studies, as do the large majority of phonological and morphological studies, use American methodology, be it based on Bloomfieldian linguistics, or be it based on those of Chomsky. The present methodology stands diametrically opposed to both schools of American linguistics cited above, and as a result introduces a fresh approach to the study of the syntactic aspect of Quechua. With Axiomatic functionalism, a new way of looking at Quechua grammar is presented and thus much of what is accepted "fact" reappraised. For this reason, while the concern of the thesis is with producing a description of syntactic relations in San Martín Quechua under the terms of Axiomatic Functionalism, reference is made to descriptions of other Quechua dialects, most notably where the application of Axiomatic Functionalism produces statements containing certain phenomena which are quite different from statements made on equivalent phenomena in other dialects using a different linguistic theory. Moreover, Axiomatic Fundamentalism is a deductive theory, and so statements regarding the data contained in the description are not statements of "fact", but are hypotheses which may stand as valid hypotheses regarding the data unless they can be refuted.
Given that the theoretical base on which the description rests is different from that used in other descriptions of Quechua dialects, and so that the hypotheses made regarding syntactic relations in San Martín Quechua may be tested, Part I of the thesis is given over to the theoretical side of the work: to explaining the relation between theory and description in Chapter I, to giving brief explications of those notions in the theory which have particular relevance for a syntactic description in Chapter II, and in noting some of the limits set to the selection of the data for description in Chapter III./ The axioms and definitions of the theory are given in Appendix A. Part II of the thesis, which is in six chapters, deals with the description proper. Structures which may stand as sentences are established and analysed into their constituent structures, the relations between each constituent being ascertained. Analysis is carried through to the stage where there are no constituents analysable in syntactic terms left.
1977-01-01T00:00:00ZHowkins, AngelaLinguistic description has been described as "the application of a particular linguistic theory to a selected field of linguistic phenomena". The thesis presented here offers a partial application of Axiomatic Functionalism, (partial because its concern is with syntax only), to data collected on the San Martín dialect of Quechua.
Proportionate to the whole body of Quechua studies, there has been little produced on the syntax of any Quechua dialect. Most syntactic studies, as do the large majority of phonological and morphological studies, use American methodology, be it based on Bloomfieldian linguistics, or be it based on those of Chomsky. The present methodology stands diametrically opposed to both schools of American linguistics cited above, and as a result introduces a fresh approach to the study of the syntactic aspect of Quechua. With Axiomatic functionalism, a new way of looking at Quechua grammar is presented and thus much of what is accepted "fact" reappraised. For this reason, while the concern of the thesis is with producing a description of syntactic relations in San Martín Quechua under the terms of Axiomatic Functionalism, reference is made to descriptions of other Quechua dialects, most notably where the application of Axiomatic Functionalism produces statements containing certain phenomena which are quite different from statements made on equivalent phenomena in other dialects using a different linguistic theory. Moreover, Axiomatic Fundamentalism is a deductive theory, and so statements regarding the data contained in the description are not statements of "fact", but are hypotheses which may stand as valid hypotheses regarding the data unless they can be refuted.
Given that the theoretical base on which the description rests is different from that used in other descriptions of Quechua dialects, and so that the hypotheses made regarding syntactic relations in San Martín Quechua may be tested, Part I of the thesis is given over to the theoretical side of the work: to explaining the relation between theory and description in Chapter I, to giving brief explications of those notions in the theory which have particular relevance for a syntactic description in Chapter II, and in noting some of the limits set to the selection of the data for description in Chapter III./ The axioms and definitions of the theory are given in Appendix A. Part II of the thesis, which is in six chapters, deals with the description proper. Structures which may stand as sentences are established and analysed into their constituent structures, the relations between each constituent being ascertained. Analysis is carried through to the stage where there are no constituents analysable in syntactic terms left.Carving wood and creating shamans : an ethnographic account of visual capacity among the Kuna of PanamáFortis, Paolohttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/5232019-07-01T10:05:39Z2008-06-25T00:00:00ZThis thesis is an ethnographic account of the carving of wooden ritual statues and of the shamanic figure of the seer among the Kuna of the San Blas archipelago of Panamá. Through a study of the production of wooden ritual statues and of the birth and initiation of seers, I show that the distinction between the visible and the invisible, and between designs and images, is a crucial aspect of Kuna ways of thinking and experiencing their world. On one hand, the Kuna theory of design shows the importance of the development of social skills in the creation of person and sociality. On the other hand, the Kuna concept of image points to the relation between human and ancestral beings and to the transformative capacities of both. Through the constant interplay of the two categories, people interact with cosmic forces and create social life.
The ethnography explores three aspects of the problem. First, the relationship between the islands inhabited by Kuna people and the mainland forest is described, focusing on the distance and separation of the two domains. The forest is perceived as a space populated by ancestral animal and tree entities, as well as demons and souls of the dead.
Second, the carving of the ritual statues and the skill of Kuna carvers are described in relation to human and supernatural fertility. The birth of seers, different from that of other babies, provides evidence of the importance of natal design as the potential skills of each person.
Third, relationships between human and supernatural beings are described considering Kuna myth and ritual action, in comparison with other indigenous American societies. This thesis concludes that it is through carving wooden statues and developing the capacity to see, Kuna people seek security in social life and protection from a predatory cosmos.
2008-06-25T00:00:00ZFortis, PaoloThis thesis is an ethnographic account of the carving of wooden ritual statues and of the shamanic figure of the seer among the Kuna of the San Blas archipelago of Panamá. Through a study of the production of wooden ritual statues and of the birth and initiation of seers, I show that the distinction between the visible and the invisible, and between designs and images, is a crucial aspect of Kuna ways of thinking and experiencing their world. On one hand, the Kuna theory of design shows the importance of the development of social skills in the creation of person and sociality. On the other hand, the Kuna concept of image points to the relation between human and ancestral beings and to the transformative capacities of both. Through the constant interplay of the two categories, people interact with cosmic forces and create social life.
The ethnography explores three aspects of the problem. First, the relationship between the islands inhabited by Kuna people and the mainland forest is described, focusing on the distance and separation of the two domains. The forest is perceived as a space populated by ancestral animal and tree entities, as well as demons and souls of the dead.
Second, the carving of the ritual statues and the skill of Kuna carvers are described in relation to human and supernatural fertility. The birth of seers, different from that of other babies, provides evidence of the importance of natal design as the potential skills of each person.
Third, relationships between human and supernatural beings are described considering Kuna myth and ritual action, in comparison with other indigenous American societies. This thesis concludes that it is through carving wooden statues and developing the capacity to see, Kuna people seek security in social life and protection from a predatory cosmos.Culture of indifference : dilemmas of the Filipina domestic helpers in Hong KongKennelly, Estelle Mhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/5092019-07-01T10:05:04Z2008-06-25T00:00:00ZIn this study, an examination of the everyday experiences of the contract migrant Filipina domestic helpers exposes a culture of indifference which pervades the Hong Kong society on all levels--individual, community, and judiciary. At the centre of the abuses inflicted upon the Helpers is the employment contract with extraordinarily restrictive terms which promotes abuse by many employers. This study also looks at the transnational informal social infrastructure which has been organized by the Filipino community to mediate the hostile working environment engendered by the indifference of the global economic and political climate upon their lives.
Faced with the task of implementing new policies for controlling labour migration into Hong Kong, the legislators have focused on the end result and finding the means with which to accomplish their goal. Embedded within this process are unexamined cultural mores and practices. Although the starting point is to benefit the community, by providing domestic helpers to serve the middle and upper class households, too often the abusive consequences to individual migrants are ignored as the women become the means to an end. Migration has often been viewed as an aberration to the notion of the sedentary community. Treated as an anomaly, it is the migrant who problematizes simple theoretical positions of social organization and structure. The migrant is always treated as the one who does not conform to the ideal community and is conveniently merged into existing social categories, such as the lower status of women in Hong Kong, and the lower status of domestic workers -- relegated thereby to the periphery of the society's consciousness.
2008-06-25T00:00:00ZKennelly, Estelle MIn this study, an examination of the everyday experiences of the contract migrant Filipina domestic helpers exposes a culture of indifference which pervades the Hong Kong society on all levels--individual, community, and judiciary. At the centre of the abuses inflicted upon the Helpers is the employment contract with extraordinarily restrictive terms which promotes abuse by many employers. This study also looks at the transnational informal social infrastructure which has been organized by the Filipino community to mediate the hostile working environment engendered by the indifference of the global economic and political climate upon their lives.
Faced with the task of implementing new policies for controlling labour migration into Hong Kong, the legislators have focused on the end result and finding the means with which to accomplish their goal. Embedded within this process are unexamined cultural mores and practices. Although the starting point is to benefit the community, by providing domestic helpers to serve the middle and upper class households, too often the abusive consequences to individual migrants are ignored as the women become the means to an end. Migration has often been viewed as an aberration to the notion of the sedentary community. Treated as an anomaly, it is the migrant who problematizes simple theoretical positions of social organization and structure. The migrant is always treated as the one who does not conform to the ideal community and is conveniently merged into existing social categories, such as the lower status of women in Hong Kong, and the lower status of domestic workers -- relegated thereby to the periphery of the society's consciousness.Gente de isla - island people : an ethnography of Apiao, Chiloé, southern ChileBacchiddu, Giovannahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/4562019-04-01T09:28:40Z2008-06-24T00:00:00ZThis thesis is based upon fieldwork carried out in the island of Apiao, in the archipelago of Chiloé, southern Chile. It is an ethnographic exploration of the way the small community of Apiao conceive of communication and interaction with both fellow human beings and supernatural creatures. The thesis describes details of every day life, with an emphasis on visiting as the main mode of social interaction. Through reciprocal hospitality the islanders enact balanced reciprocal exchange. Food and drink is offered and received; this is always returned in equal measure with a return visit. Visits between friends or neighbours are articulated according to a formal ritualistic etiquette based on asking. Balance is temporarily interrupted and small debts incurred when favors are asked. These must be reciprocated promptly. Momentary interruption of equilibrium perpetuates relations among people who describe themselves as being 'all the same'.
Marriage equates to forming an independent, productive unit with a focus on inhabitants of households rather than on family in terms of decent or blood ties. Kinship terms are limited to the word mama and this refers to the grandmother, the focal role in raising children. Active memory as expression of love and care is what makes people related to each other. Kin ties must be kept active by constant love and care. Forgetful kin are in turn forgotten and slowly erased from memory.
The thesis shows that religious beliefs are centered on exchange relationships with powerful entities that belong to the supernatural world. The dead and the miraculous San Antonio are powerful and ambivalent: they protect and help the living but can be revengeful and harmful if neglected by the living. Novenas are offered to the dead and the San Antonio in exchange for protection and miracles. Novenas represent a public and powerful ritual display of hospitality, enacting values of memory, solidarity and exchange.
2008-06-24T00:00:00ZBacchiddu, GiovannaThis thesis is based upon fieldwork carried out in the island of Apiao, in the archipelago of Chiloé, southern Chile. It is an ethnographic exploration of the way the small community of Apiao conceive of communication and interaction with both fellow human beings and supernatural creatures. The thesis describes details of every day life, with an emphasis on visiting as the main mode of social interaction. Through reciprocal hospitality the islanders enact balanced reciprocal exchange. Food and drink is offered and received; this is always returned in equal measure with a return visit. Visits between friends or neighbours are articulated according to a formal ritualistic etiquette based on asking. Balance is temporarily interrupted and small debts incurred when favors are asked. These must be reciprocated promptly. Momentary interruption of equilibrium perpetuates relations among people who describe themselves as being 'all the same'.
Marriage equates to forming an independent, productive unit with a focus on inhabitants of households rather than on family in terms of decent or blood ties. Kinship terms are limited to the word mama and this refers to the grandmother, the focal role in raising children. Active memory as expression of love and care is what makes people related to each other. Kin ties must be kept active by constant love and care. Forgetful kin are in turn forgotten and slowly erased from memory.
The thesis shows that religious beliefs are centered on exchange relationships with powerful entities that belong to the supernatural world. The dead and the miraculous San Antonio are powerful and ambivalent: they protect and help the living but can be revengeful and harmful if neglected by the living. Novenas are offered to the dead and the San Antonio in exchange for protection and miracles. Novenas represent a public and powerful ritual display of hospitality, enacting values of memory, solidarity and exchange.