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Boni, Stefano. "Hierarchy in twentieth-century Sefwi (Ghana)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c3238187-7e9d-465d-b9e4-63ea1ad7eda1.
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The dissertation aims to provide an understanding of the relation between political-economic power and the attribution of social value in twentieth-century Sefwi (Ghana). The existing literature on relations of dominance amongst the Akan has flaws: works examine single relations of dominance in isolation; studies focus mostly on discontinuity and change; peripheral areas are neglected. In the dissertation these issues are addressed. Hierarchy is used as an analytical tool which enables one to link diverse expressions of dominance; the persistence of certain hierarchical patterns throughout the twentieth century is analysed alongside transformations; and the focus is on Sefwi, a marginal region of the Akan world. The dissertation is divided into five sections. The introduction presents the methodological and theoretical approach adopted in the work. Part one is concerned with change in hierarchical patterns: twentieth-century dynamics are analysed to determine the extent of change with reference to chiefly power, capitalist.relations and gender issues. Part two shows that unequal relations inform three hierarchical domains -ancestry, gender and seniority. Part three addresses the issue of the coherence and unity of hierarchy by examining modes of organization of experience that cut across the three domains of inequality: reference is made to the use of kinship terms; concepts of ownership, caretakership and help; recourse to the supernatural; food and drink transactions. In the conclusion, Sefwi hierarchy is examined in a wider comparative and theoretical perspective with reference to the notions of 'encompassing of the contrary' (Dumont) and 'fetishization' (Marx).
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Afari-Twumasi, Lucy. "Traditional and cultural practices and the rights of women : a study of widowhood practices among the Akans in Ghana." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2844.
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The study investigates the human rights violations that underlie widowhood practices in Cape Coast and Komenda in the Central Region of Ghana. Review of the relevant literature on widowhood practices suggests that widowhood practices are a global cultural phenomenon, which is not confined to Sub-Sahara Africa. A survey of relevant studies on the phenomenon suggests that there are two competing perceptions on African widowhood practices: (1) a dominant negative perspective and (2) a minor positive perspective. The dominant negative perspective, which receives overwhelming research attention, focuses only on the negative characteristics of widowhood while the minor positive perspective which receives scanty research attention, rejects the criticisms levelled against widowhood practices as being externally influenced by Christianity and Western Feminism. Various stakeholders within the Akan community were given an opportunity to retell their own versions of widowhood practices. In order to achieve this purpose, the research extracted competing narratives from all the multiple sample subgroups of the proposed study: widows; widow family heads; chiefs; widowhood ritual practitioners; elderly female supervisors of widowhood practices; an official from the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ); an official from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC); and an official from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of Ghana. The study found out that despite legislative intervention and policy frameworks, the practice still persist among the Akan communities in Ghana. The reasons for the continued existence of such rituals are explained followed by recommendations for possible solutions.
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Oppong, Yaa Mary Pokua Afriyie. "'We follow our cow ... and forget our home' : movement, survival and Fulani identity in Greater Accra, Ghana." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1999. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29240/.
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We follow our cow and forget our home'. This statement encapsulates the problems that this thesis addresses in relation to the three interdependent themes of identity, movement and survival. This study is concerned with Fulani identities and mobility in Greater Accra, Ghana. It is ultimately about Fulani survival across space and through time. It involves an understanding of where people are coming from, where they have travelled to and the environments in which they have grown up, been educated, married, borne children and worked. The units of analysis are the lives, stories and experiences of individuals, as well as the communities and ultimately ethnic group of which they form a part. The account thus addresses the 'personal troubles' of individual women and men, both young and old, as well as wider 'public issues' taken up by the Ghanaian state and press. These issues are also observed to be the subject of debate and concern in the Fulani community in Greater Accra. This thesis concerns itself with the sites and circumstances in which Fulani consider themselves to be the same or different. The markers of Fulani identity, as recognized by Fulani and non-Fulani alike, are examined. The factors are investigated that allow them, as a distinct ethnic category, to maintain and perpetuate this identity and viability in Greater Accra. The analogy of 'construction sites' is useful for considering these different, explicit and implicit events and recurring processes, through which people reproduce themselves as Fulani (of various kinds). These sites are locations as well as contexts of action. They are social circumstances (with personnel, power relations, procedures etc.) such as ethnic associations, public gatherings and common rites of passage. The recurring processes include genealogical reckoning of kinship and endogamous marriage transactions, and the ways in which ties of descent and filiation are used to enhance individual survival and family development goals.
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Simsek-Caglar, Ayse. "German Turks in Berlin : migration and their quest for social mobility." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=41770.
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This study examines the dynamics of German Turks' practices and life-styles and their relationship with Turkey in the context of the possibilities brought into their lives by their particular type of dislocation. Turkish migrants' "culture" and life-styles are explored in the context of their complex social space, rather than within a framework encapsulated in a reified ethnicity and/or immutable "Turkish culture".Chapter I discusses concepts of ethnicity, culture and identity and presents a critical account of the literature on German Turks in this respect. Chapter II focuses on the ambiguities and insecurities of German Turks' legal, political and social status in both Turkey and Germany, and traces the consequences of these conditions on Turkish migrants' complex sense of place. The discussion of German Turks' "myths of return" in the context of their liminality and the impact these have on their self-image and their visions about their lives constitute the focus of chapters III and IV respectively. Chapter V explores the changing nature of Turkish migrants' interpersonal relationships. Chapter VI concentrates on the anomalies of the social space occupied by German Turks in German society and discusses their life-styles, practices and emergent cultural forms in the context of social mobility.
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Noble, Sandra Eleanor. "Maya seats and Maya seats-of-authority." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/NQ38950.pdf.
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Ishii, Kimiko. "Cross-cultural differences in facial expressions : a study of an Asian American and an Asian national." Virtual Press, 2004. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1304656.
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Many researchers have suggested that facial expressions are universal. However, others hold a more nuanced view: That despite universal similarities, facial expressions are culture-specific. In the current study, facial expressions of an Asian American and an Asian national were studied using scenes from two television dramas from the United States and Japan. Similarities and differences were found between the facial expressions of the two characters. The existence of similarities supports the basic universality of facial expressions, while differences were found which support the perspective that facial expressions are culture-specific. These differences were primarily in the relationships between the intensity levels of the external expressions and the internal experiences of the two people. The findings indicate that even when people share basic facial features, the ways they express their emotions differ according to the cultures in which they grew up.Department of Speech Communication
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Mbewe, Mpho. "‘Ubhuti wami’: a qualitative secondary analysis of brothering among isiXhosa men." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013149.
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This project is interested in investigating the construction of the fraternal sibling relationshipwithin the South African context from a narrative perspective. In particular, this study is interested in the ways in which middle aged isiXhosa men narrate experiences of brothering and how social class, as one particular context, mediates these narratives. This project is particularly interested in brothering within the isiXhosa culture and is concerned with both middle class and working class men within this cultural context. The project takes as its particular focus the meaning of brothering, and specifically how masculinity, intimacy and money or class influence the brothering practices constructed by the men in the sample. The project employs a social constructionist perspective, using a thematic narrative analysis to analyse the data. This project uses secondary analysis of data, as the data was collected for the primary use by Jackson (2009), Peirce (2009), Saville Young (Saville Young & Jackson, 2011) and Stonier (2010). The analysis reflects emergent themes of the importance of fraternal sacrifice, care-taking and sibling responsibility, honouring the family, and challenge to traditional masculinity. These themes emerged within the prior themes of masculinity, intimacy and class within brothering. The men spoke of keeping the family prosperous and united as an important duty in their brothering role. Affection was expressed more practically and symbolically, and closeness constructed through shared experiences, proximity and similarities. My findings reflect that family expectations, culture and social context had key influences on brothering, based on the men's narratives. Findings are discussed in relation to literature on brothering, masculinity and intimacy, and the influence of money in close relationships.
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Ramström, Lars. "Process of leaving the street : -children’s experiences of going from street life to life within an organization in Ghana." Thesis, Mid Sweden University, Department of Social Work, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-513.
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This article examines how former street children experienced going from street life to life within an organization. Through semi-structured interviews with six children and one field worker, the aim has been to identify key points that made these children going all the way while other left, but also to highlight challenges and difficulties along the way. Reports from Ghana and other parts of the world about a low rate of success in working with these children made the subject interesting. Findings suggest that the process of leaving the street is more than just a physical move. The ability of the organizations to motivate and assist the children to change character has shown to be very critical for making the children stay within the program. Also the influence and assistance between the boys themselves has been of uttermost importance.
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Samuels, Jonathan. "Tamang clan culture and its relevance to the archaic culture of Tibet." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.669727.
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Mu¨hlan, Eberhard. "Family structures among Adivasis in India : a description and comparison of family structures and lives within the patrilineal tribe of Saoras in Orissa and the matrilineal tribe of Khasis in Meghalaya, India." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683361.
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Quest, A. Del. "Out of the Way and Out of Place: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experiences of Social Interactions of Bisexually Attracted Young People." PDXScholar, 2014. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/2002.
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Research addressing the concerns of bisexually attracted youth has markedly increased in the past few years, yet remains limited in comparison to that addressing the issues of lesbian and gay youth (Brewster & Moradi, 2010). Those few studies treating bisexual participants as distinct from lesbian and gay participants have findings indicating that some youth who identify as bisexual experience higher rates of depression, pregnancy, substance abuse, suicidal ideations, and suicide attempts compared to their lesbian and gay peers (Kennedy & Fisher, 2010; Lewis, Derlega, Brown, Rose, & Henson, 2009; Saewyc, Homma, Skay, Bearinger, Resnick, & Reis, 2009). Most commonly, however, research studies examine all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer participants as one group, and little is known about the ways in which these distinct groups differ. Biphobia, defined as the aversion felt toward bisexuality and bisexuals as a social group or as individuals, contributes to barriers in addressing this gap.
The primary objective of this study was to gain an understanding of how the participants recalled their social interactions and how they made sense of them. In depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten young people who were bisexually attracted when they were of high school age. Results were analyzed and discussed using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach. Analyses of these accounts revealed the ways these young people made sense of feeling dismissed, isolated, invisible, and unsafe in their environments and the ways they used their observations to control future interactions. The participants discussed their experiences with coming out to family members and friends and the strain of choosing to hide their attractions to more than one gender.
These findings indicate the need for services offering specific supports and interventions for bisexually attracted youth. Social workers, youth workers, and educators can best serve this population by acknowledging the uniqueness of their experiences. Future research, focused on group specific concerns, could close the existing gap in the knowledge base.
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Singley, William Blake. "Recipes for a nation : cookbooks and Australian culture to 1939." Phd thesis, 2013, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/109392.
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Cookbooks were ubiquitous texts found in almost every Australian home. They played an influential role that extended far beyond their original intended use in the kitchen. They codified culinary and domestic practices thereby also codifying wider cultural practices and were linked to transformations occurring in society at large. This thesis illuminates the many ways in which cookbooks reflected and influenced developments in Australian culture and society from the early colonial period until 1939. Whilst concentrating on culinary texts, this thesis does not primarily focus on food; instead it explores the many different ways that cookbooks can be read to further understand Australian culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Through cookbooks we can chart the attitudes and responses to many of the changes that were occurring in Australian life and society. During a period of dramatic social change cookbooks were a constant and reassuring presence in the home. It was within the home that the foundations of Australian culture were laid. Cookbooks provide a unique perspective on issues such as gender, class, race, education, technology, and most importantly they hold a mirror up to Australia and show us what we thought of ourselves.
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Coronado, Suzán Gabriela, of Western Sydney Hawkesbury University, and Faculty of Social Inquiry. "Silenced voices of Mexican culture : identity, resistance and creativity in the interethnic dialogue." THESIS_FSI_SEL_Coronado_G.xml, 2000. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/378.
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Interethnic communication is the focus of this thesis, as the basis for understanding Mexican culture and identity as a dynamic and complex process, which acts, from the past and in the present, to create what Mexicans are and will be.By exploring different instances where interethnic communication occurs and produces various representations of culture, this work shows the complexities of interethnic exchanges at different levels of Mexican society (in the community or in the nation) and at different moments of its history (from the conquest to the present).This complex picture is constructed using an interdisciplinary framework that includes radical ethnography, social semiotics and new social history; all of them oriented to the understanding of culture as a meaningful way to analyse society in the context of its cultural, economic and political life.Through different interethnic activities (political meetings, cultural representations, religious practices, economic activities, institutional projects, social movements) this research explores what Indian creativity can offer to construct a society that is simultaneously ancient and new, united and diverse, Indian and Mexican, and, more than ever, just and inclusive of all sectors that form Mexican societyDoctor of Philosophy (PhD) (Social Ecology)
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de, Oliveira Adolfo. "Of life and happines : morality, aesthetics, and social life among the southeastern Amazonian Mebengokré (Kayapó), as seen from the margins of ritual." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2665.
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This 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.
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Edelsward, L. M. 1958. "Sauna as symbol." Thesis, McGill University, 1988. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=63982.
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Borman, Patricia D. "Spirituality and religiosity and their relationship to the quality of life in oncology patients." Virtual Press, 1999. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1159141.
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As the efficacy of cancer treatments has improved and the life span for cancer patients has extended, interest in patients' quality of life has increased. Assessing patients' quality of life continues to gain importance as it impacts numerous facets of oncology. Similarly, interest in spirituality and religiosity have increased as they become recognized as resources for healing in health care. This study examined spirituality and religiosity and their relationship with quality of life in cancer patients. Additional variables such as age, gender, and stage of cancer were also examined for their relationship to quality of life in cancer patients. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to determine if spirituality, religiosity, age, gender, and stage of cancer are predictors of cancer patients' quality of life. The analysis indicated that patients with higher levels of spirituality tend to experience better quality of life, and patients with more advanced stages of cancer tend to experience lower quality of life. Religiosity, age, and gender were not predictors of cancer patients' quality of life.Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services
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Lewis, Robert Lee III. "Changing Perceptions of Heraldry in English Knightly Culture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1996. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277947/.
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The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and discuss the changing ways in which the visual art of heraldiy was perceived by the feudal aristocracy of twelfth- and thirteenth-century England. It shows how the aristocracy evolved from a military class to a courtly, chivalric class, and how this change affected art and culture. The shifts in the perceptions of heraldry reflect this important social development of the knightly class.
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盧嘉琪. "清代廣嗣思想研究 = On guangsi : a study of the ideas of multiplying descendants in Qing China." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2007. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/805.
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Oliver, Joanne Elizabeth. "The father daughter relationship and female adolescent sexual activity and dating life /." View online, 1996. http://repository.eiu.edu/theses/docs/32211131402616.pdf.
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Drum, Mary Therese, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Women, religion and social change in the Philippines: Refractions of the past in urban filipinas' religious practices today." Deakin University. School of Social Inquiry, 2001. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20060825.115435.
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This research is an exploration of the place of religious beliefs and practices in the life of contemporary, predominantly Catholic, Filipinas in a large Quezon City Barangay in Metro Manila. I use an iterative discussion of the present in the light of historical studies, which point to women in pre-Spanish Filipino society having been the custodians of a rich religious heritage and the central performers in a great variety of ritual activities. I contend that although the widespread Catholic evangelisation, which accompanied colonisation, privileged male religious leadership, Filipinos have retained their belief in feminine personages being primary conduits of access to spiritual agency through which the course of life is directed. In continuity with pre-Hispanic practices, religious activities continue to be conceived in popular consciousness as predominantly womens sphere of work in the Philippines. I argue that the reason for this is that power is not conceived as a unitary, undifferentiated entity. There are gendered avenues to prestige and power in the Philippines, one of which directly concerns religious leadership and authority. The legitimacy of religious leadership in the Philippines is heavily dependent on the ability to foster and maintain harmonious social relations. At the local level, this leadership role is largely vested in mature influential women, who are the primary arbiters of social values in their local communities. I hold that Filipinos have appropriated symbols of Catholicism in ways that allow for a continuation and strengthening of their basic indigenous beliefs so that Filipinos religious beliefs and practices are not dichotomous, as has sometimes been argued. Rather, I illustrate from my research that present day urban Filipinos engage in a blend of formal and informal religious practices and that in the rituals associated with both of these forms of religious practice, women exercise important and influential roles. From the position of a feminist perspective I draw on individual womens articulation of their life stories, combined with my observation and participation in the religious practices of Catholic women from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, to discuss the role of Filipinas in local level community religious leadership. I make interconnections between womens influence in this sphere, their positioning in family social relations, their role in the celebration of All Saints and All Souls Days in Metro Manilas cemeteries and the ubiquity and importance of Marian devotions. I accompany these discussions with an extensive body of pictorial plates.
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Crop, Eared Wolf Annabel, and University of Lethbridge Faculty of Arts and Science. "Matsiyipaitapiiyssini : Kainai peacekeeping and peacemaking." Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Arts and Science, 2007, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/655.
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The purpose of this thesis is to explore and provide an understanding of Kainai
peacekeeping and peacemaking within the context of the Kainai worldview, employing
postcolonial Indigenous theory and a Kainai process of inquiry. Relying on the oral
tradition, as articulated by Káínai elders, as a primary source, Káínai peacekeeping and
peacemaking is elucidated through an interpretive approach that examines the
foundational principles of the Káínai worldview, as well as Káínai values, relationships,
traditions, and customs. It is demonstrated how these function in unison to effect
peacekeeping and peacemaking. The results of this study further an understanding of
Káínai peacekeeping and peacemaking, aboriginal justice in general and Indigenous
knowledge. The results will also contribute to Káínai in the development of a
contemporary peacemaking model as part of its Justice Initiative.xi, 165 leaves ; 29 cm.
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Koutsogianopoulos, Ralia. "Thonging for identity : learning about girlhood, sexuality and feminity in a tween retail space." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=83190.
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Children learn from a variety of sources. One of the most powerful pedagogical sites for kids is the consumer sphere. Marketers recognize this and have recently carved out a new consumer niche for those between childhood and adolescence, marking them as tweens. La Senza Corporation, which specializes in women's lingerie, responded to this trend by opening a tween store with a name heavily laden with meanings of sexuality: La Senza Girl. This study will apply a textual analysis to the tween retail space, in an effort to understand the informal pedagogy that takes place within this milieu. While La Senza Girl celebrates girlhood by creating a space that tween girls can call their own, it is important to take stock of the meanings of girlhood being celebrated. This study interrogates La Senza Girl's 'pedagogies' of femininity, sexuality and girlhood.
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Anderson, Samantha. "Gender performativity and ritual performance in South-east China." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23706.
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This thesis explores issues of subjectivity and gender around ritual activity in Xianyou county, Fujian Province, China. It focuses on three groups of women: Buddhist nuns, mediums and village women engaged in the ritual caretaking of their families. It also examines a spirit writing text from the late Qing dynasty (1644-1911). It is suggested that subject positions and kin positions are to a certain extent coextensive and that participation in certain rituals is what constitutes one as a gendered subject (as a "woman") and in certain kin roles (as wife, daughter-in-law, etc.). Other gendered subject positions (such as that of melancholic lover) are explored in an attempt to complicate any simple determinism that might accompany to easy a correspondence of kin position with sex role.
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Batalha, Luís. "The Cape Verdean "community" in Portugal : anthropological constructions from within and without." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e45c7509-983c-4b57-b599-48c950384572.
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The elite and the labour migrants live in completely different worlds: the first in middle-class suburbs and the second in shantytowns and council housing projects. Notions of 'race' and 'class', based on differences in complexion, education and wealth, contribute to the existence of these two groups of Cape Verdeans as separate entities. While the elite Portuguese Cape Verdeans are almost invisible within the mainstream society, the Cape Verdean labour migrants are highly visible because of their poor social integration. While the descendants of the elite are diluting within the Portuguese mainstream, the descendants of the labour migrants are occupying the fringes of Portuguese society and developing an oppositional identity in relation to the Portuguese mainstream. The first part of this thesis gives a detailed description of the Cape Verde archipelago and the foundations of its colonial society, and of the important issue of Cape Verdean migration. The second part presents the life of the two groups of Cape Verdeans in postcolonial Portugal and the ways the Portuguese mainstream perceive them.
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Abel, Filomeno Simão Jacob. "Structure and history in Kisar." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670239.
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Thompson, Heather Ann. "Bloody women : rites of passage, blood and Artemis : women in Classical Athenian conception." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15182.
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The expected role for women in 5th century Athens as presented in evidence from myths, rituals, medicine and religion was socially and biologically conceived of in strict terms, but it was also perceived as conflicted. This conflict will be explored by investigating women in real life and women in myth and ritual. The ideal rites of passage women were intended to pass through in their lives as exemplified in medical texts required women to shed their blood at appropriate times from menarche to marriage to motherhood. These transitions are socially signified by certain rituals designed to highlight the change in the individuals' status. This medical conception of the female body and its functions was affected by social expectations of the proper female role in society: to be a wife and mother. Myths presented extraordinary women as failing to bleed in the standard socially expected transitions from parthenos to gyne. The discrepancy between the presentation of women in social and medical thought and the presentation of women in myth indicates the ambiguities and difficulties that surround the development of girls into complete women often explored in rituals. These two provinces, women in everyday life and women in myth and ritual, overlap, relate and interpenetrate in the presentation of the goddess Artemis. Artemis operates in a place where myth and real life function together in the form of rituals surrounding women bleeding in these rites of passage. The methodology of social anthropology adopted in this study allows the interpretation of myth in action in women's lives and investigates where social ideals, mythology and the goddess Artemis overlap to inform the lives of women. Rather than merely describe what occurred in myth and ritual or what a woman's life was meant to be, this model will illustrate how such elements combined to affect a woman's life and the functioning of the society in which she lived. The picture which is created of the position of women when this evidence is considered in conjunction with the precepts of social anthropology illustrates part of a discourse about the position women and reveals how the social structure of their place in society was produced and reproduced.
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McAllister, P. A. "Xhosa beer drinks and their oratory." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012863.
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This is a study of 'beer drinks' among Xhosa people living in the Shixini administrative area of Willowvale district, Transkei. Beer drinks are defined as a 'polythetic' class of events distinguishable from other kinds of ceremonies and rituals at which beer may be consumed, and an attempt is made to outline their major characteristics. A detailed description of the way in which beer drinks are conducted is provided in Chapter 3, with emphasis on the symbolism involved in the allocation of beer, space and time, and on the speech events (including formal oratory) that occur. The main theoretical argument is that beer drinks may be regarded as 'cultural performances' in which social reality or 'practice' is dramatised and reflected upon, enabling people to infuse their experience with meaning and to establish guidelines for future action. This is achieved by relating social practice to cultural norms and values, in a dynamic rather than a static manner. It is demonstrated that the symbolism involved in beer drinking is highly sensitive to the real world and adjusts accordingly, which means that 'culture' is continually being reinterpreted. Despite poverty, a degree of landlessness and heavy reliance on migrant labour, Shixini people maintain an ideal of rural selfsufficiency and are able to partly fulfill this ideal, thereby maintaining a degree of independence and resistance to full incorporation into the wider political economy of southern Africa. They achieve this largely by maintaining a strong sense of community and of household interdependence, linked to a sense of Xhosa tradition. It is this aspect of social practice, manifested in a variety of forms - work parties, ploughing companies, rites of passage, and so on - that is dramatised, reflected upon and reinforced at beer drinks. In a definite sense then, beer drinks may be regarded as a response and a way of adapting to apartheid, and this study one of a community under threat.
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Reig, Alejandro. "When the forest world is not wide enough we open up many clearings : the making of landscape, place and people among the Shitari Yanomami of the upper Ocamo basin, Venezuela." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.669819.
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Sheffield, Rachel. "Dating in midlife : a dyadic approach to examining the influence of life course factors on partner perceptions /." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2008. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd2624.pdf.
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White, Bruce M. ""Give us a little milk" : economics and ceremony in the Ojibway fur trade." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=64477.
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Klop, Damian Jerome O'Reilly. "Beer as a signifier of social status in ancient Egypt with special emphasis on the New Kingdom period (ca.1550 – 1069 BC) : the place of beer in Egyptian society compared to wine." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/97042.
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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Some academics are of the generalist opinion that ancient Egyptian beer was only consumed by the lower classes because of its low social status. This is based on the generalization that individuals only consume alcoholic beverages matching the status of their social class. Therefore the lower classes consumed beer while the upper classes consumed an alcoholic beverage of higher status, i.e. wine. However, other academics are of the universalist opinion that Egyptian beer was universally consumed by all Egyptian social classes irrespective of the status of beer. This study aims to test the validity of these opposing academic opinions and also strives to understand how statements of status in Egyptian society were devised, and what they were conveying. This was achieved by determining the status of Egyptian beer and wine and then comparing them to the respective status of beer and wine drinkers in the New Kingdom period (c. 1550-1069) according to the factors of production, consumption, health, economic exchange & distribution, and religion. Use is made of an anthropological approach which allows the researcher to limit social bias and understand ancient Egyptian society on its own terms. Results of this study indicate that Egyptian beer had a much lower status than Egyptian wine and all social classes consumed beer while only the upper classes consumed wine. The generalist opinion, therefore, is falsified and the universalist opinion validated. The results also indicate that the upper classes justified their beer consumption by producing, consuming and exchanging an elite beer of higher status in a manner reminiscent of wine so that it compared more favourably with the status of their social classes. This study, therefore, not only settles an old academic dispute but also provides new insight into Egyptian beer.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sommige akademici huldig die algemene siening dat antieke Egyptiese bier uitsluitlik deur die laer klasse gebruik is, omdat bier ‘n laer status geniet het. Dit is gegrond op die veralgemening dat individue slegs alkoholiese drank gebruik het wat ooreenstem met hul eie sosiale klas. Die laer klasse het dus bier gedrink terwyl die hoër klasse alkoholiese drank van ‘n hoër status, naamlik wyn, gedrink het. Ander akademici is egter van mening dat Egiptiese bier deur alle Egiptiese sosiale klasse gebruik is, ongeag die status van bier. Hierdie studie poog om die geldigheid van hierdie teenstrydige akademiese menings te toets en poog ook om te verstaan hoe stellings oor status in die Egiptiese samelewing bedink is en wat hulle wou oordra. Dit is bereik deur die status van Egiptiese bier en wyn te bepaal en dit dan te vergelyk met die besondere status van bier en wyndrinkers in die Nuwe Koningkryk tydperk (c. 1550-1069) volgens die faktore van produksie, verbruik, gesondheid, ekonomiese uitruiling & verspreiding en godsdiens. ‘n Antropologiese benadering is gevolg omdat dit die navorser in staat stel om sosiale partydigheid te beperk en sodoende die Egiptiese samelewing in eie reg te kan verstaan. Resultate van hierdie studie dui aan dat alhoewel Egiptiese bier ‘n veel laer status as Egiptiese wyn geniet het, het alle sosiale klasse nietemin bier gedrink, terwyl net die hoër klasse wyn gedrink het. Die algemene mening is gefalsifiseer, terwyl die universele mening gestaaf word. Die resultate dui ook aan dat die hoër sosiale klasse hul bierverbruik geregverdig het deur ‘n elite bier van hoër status te produseer, uit te ruil en te gebruik op ‘n wyse soortgelyk aan diè van hul wynverbruik, sodat dit gunstig vergelyk met die status van hul sosiale klasse. Hierdie studie los dus nie net ‘n ou akademiese meningsverskil op nie, maar gee ook ‘n nuwe insig in Egiptiese bier en die gebruik daarvan deur die hoër klasse.
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Pritchard, Stephen (Stephen John) 1970. "Contested titles : postcolonialism, representation and indigeneity in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand." Monash University, Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, 2000. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/7831.
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Rudy, Robert Jarrett. "Manly smokes : tobacco consumption and the construction of identities in industrial Montreal, 1888-1914." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=37910.
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This dissertation explores the cultural practice of smoking and its connection to social relations from the beginning of cigarette mass production in Montreal in 1888 to the First World War. It uncovers the norms of smoking etiquette and taste, their roots in gender, class and race relations and their use in reproducing these power relationships. It argues that these prescriptions reflected and served to legitimize beliefs about inclusion, exclusion and hierarchy that were at the core of nineteenth century liberalism. Liberal ideals of self-control and rationality structured the ritual of smoking: from the purchase of tobacco; to who was to smoke; to how one was supposed to smoke; to where one smoked. These prescriptions served to normalize the exclusion of women from the definition of the liberal individual and to justify the subordination of the poor and cultural minorities. Furthermore, even while these prescriptions were at their height, an emergent group of beliefs began to recast notions of respectable smoking around new ideals of speed and ungendered universality. This challenge was not only part of the transition from bourgeois to mass consumption, it was the roots of a transformation of the liberal order in the years previous to the First World War.
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Deere, Andrew G. (Andrew Graham). "The contract of mandatum and the notion of amicitia in the Roman Republic." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=22578.
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The contract of mandatum in Roman law, unlike its namesake in modern civil law legal systems, was not a contract of representation or agency. It was a contract of gratuitous performance of services for others. According to Corpus luris Civilis it was a contract which drew its origin from the duties of friendship. This paper examines certain rules of mandatum and compares them with a similar legal institution known as procuratio and concludes that friendship must indeed have been the origin of the contract. The paper then examines various aspects of friendship in Roman society, and concludes that social custom cannot have been the sole basis for the creation of the contract. The philosophical and ethical views of Cicero and Seneca are then considered. From the works of these two authors two lines of thought regarding friendship are deduced: friendships are to be entered into for their own sake, or friendships are to be entered into for the benefits that will ensue. The former is the 'noble' view of friendship, the latter the 'utilitarian'. The author concludes after a reexamination of the rules of mandatum that the 'noble' view provides a better answer to the question of why mandatum was created by the Roman jurists.
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Aitieva, Medina. "Gender and ethnic differences in migration of young adults in contemporary Kyrgyzstan." Virtual Press, 2003. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1265465.
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This study uses two survey data - one conducted in Kyrgyzstan and another in the United States - to examine the effect of familial responsibilities, cultural expectations and tradition in Kyrgyzstan on young adults' decision to marry a foreigner. It predicted there would be certain gender and ethnic differences in migration of 18 to 30 years old young adults, citizens of Kyrgyzstan. Two assumptions were explored: 1) females, more than males, would like to marry a foreigner and stay in a foreign country and 2) Russian, more than Turkic respondents would like to stay in a foreign country if they found a mate who was a foreigner. These differences were expected due to contrasting familial responsibilities of females versus males and Russian versus Turkic young people. Familial responsibilities did not explain the gender and ethnic differences in marriage migration. The gender variable suggests further investigation whereas the ethnic differences show a stronger effect on the marriage migration. Russians, more than Turkic young adults, wanted to marry a foreigner since they wanted to emigrate from Kyrgyzstan eventually and did not want to return.Department of Sociology
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Naidoo, Suraya. "Attitudes and perceptions of marriage and divorce among Indian Muslim students." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003077.
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This study explores the question of religion and ethnicity as a source of family diversity and ideology. An ideal-typical "traditional Muslim family ideology" was developed and tested. Eight Indian Muslim students at Rhodes University were asked about their attitudes and perceptions of marriage and family life, to determine the particular type of family ideology that these students embraced. Family-related issues such as marriage; the division of labour; gender roles; the extended family system; divorce; and polygamy were addressed. On the basis of the research results, it was found that these students largely adopted the "traditional Muslim family ideology". Religion and ethnicity were found to play an important role, in the make-up of these students' perception of marriage and family life, and a strong preference for the extended family was shown.
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Woodruff, Sylvia. "Sherpa women." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1988. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/402.
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Sarmiento, Barletti Juan Pablo. "Kametsa asaiki : the pursuit of the 'good life' in an Ashaninka village (Peruvian Amazonia)." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2114.
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This 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.
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Butt, Leslie. "The social and political life of infants among the Baliem Valley Dani, Irian Jaya /." Thesis, McGill University, 1997. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=34921.
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Among the Baliem valley Dani of the central highlands of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, infants play a prominent role in social relations. Infant mortality rates among the Dani are above two hundred and fifty deaths per thousand live births and birth rates are low. To these patterns of infant survival and growth the Dani consistently ascribe complex meaning. Drawing from anthropological research conducted in 1994--1995 in the Baliem valley, this dissertation demonstrates that indigenous meanings about the infant body and assessments of infant health link the infant to political relations within polygynous families, to antagonistic gender relations, and to affiliations with powerful ancestor spirits. Gender relations play a prominent role in explanations about infants. When an infant dies, parents explain the death in ways that reflect the lower social status of women in relation to men. A study of sex ratios during the first year of life and biased use of health services by gender of the infant suggest that the Dani may generate and validate cultural patterns of gender inequality during the earliest months of life.Infants also play an important role in national politics. In Indonesia's attempts to assimilate indigenous peoples into the country's economic development agenda, the infant appears in health promotions as a member of a contrived ideal family. These national cultural models, grounded in a concern with population control, translate into an applied health agenda for infants that has little impact on the mortality rates of the very young in Dani society.
The infant, though mute, is a powerful figure at the center of many social and political relations. The richness of meaning attributed to infants in the Baliem valley suggests that further research is needed to correct lacunae in anthropological theory about one of life's key social figures.
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Komlosy, Anouska. "Images of the Dai : the aesthetics of gender and identity in Xishuangbanna." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/7293.
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This 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.
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Doh, Daniel. "Towards active ageing: A comparative study of experiences of older Ghanaians in Australia and Ghana." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2017. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2010.
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Population ageing has become a central feature of the 21st century, as most countries search for economically viable strategies to support and manage their ageing populations to live in a dignified way. In 2002, the World Health Organisation (WHO) proposed the active ageing policy framework to guide countries to develop policies that promote the quality of life for their older people. However, the interpretation and application of the active ageing model in the literature and policy discussions are inconclusive on the most important elements that promote the quality of life of older people. The discussions have largely focused on health promotion and economic aspects of the model without much attention to other aspects. In addition, there are questions about the extent to which the active ageing model is adaptable to different contexts. The lack of consensus among researchers and policy actors on the meaning of active ageing, and its application to different contexts has resulted in calls for the need for studies that explore active ageing from the perspectives of older people themselves.
This thesis presents findings from a study that examined the meaning of active ageing from the lived experiences of older Ghanaians living in Ghana and Australia, and compared the findings theoretically and conceptually with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) active ageing model. The study also investigated the extent to which research participants’ socio-cultural and political contexts influenced their respective experiences and the meaning they ascribed to active ageing, and the factors that contributed to their perceived quality of life at old age. The study was designed as an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) in combination with a comparative case study situated within the life course theoretical framework. The study drew on an in-depth qualitative data collected from 30 older Ghanaians, comprising 15 who were living in Ghana and 15 who were living in Australia.
Two key findings emerged from this research. First, experientially, active ageing is multidimensional and comprises social interaction, activity, health, independence, work and employment, spirituality, happiness, and public safety. However, social interaction—which included strong family support systems, friendship networks and community activities—emerged as the single most significant experiential meaning of active ageing, and was considered critical for quality of life at old age. Despite the importance of social interaction for research participants’ quality of life, comparatively, the study found that social interaction is subsumed under the participation pillar of the WHO’s active ageing model, which is not particularly well understood or developed by policy makers compared with the pillar of health. In addition, there were notable variations in participants’ experiential meaning of active ageing between respondents in Ghana and Australia, reinforcing how different policy contexts shape people’s experiences.
Second, the study found four types of quality of life from the typologies of quality of life at old age created in the data using a matrix of high and low levels of social interaction and access to essential social policy services. The types of quality of life in the matrix were optimum agers, happy poor agers, disconnected agers and destitute agers. The data showed that acquiring, creating and maintaining a high level of social interaction together with the development of knowledge, useful skills and personal initiatives in a favourable social, economic and health policy environment are likely to lead to optimum ageing.
The overall contribution of this thesis relates to the need for active ageing stakeholders to contextualise the WHO’s active ageing model based on the perspectives and experiences of older people within their respective socio-cultural and political contexts. In addition, population ageing policy makers may need to consider taking steps to strengthen older people’s family systems, while creating opportunities for them to deepen their social networking and communal living. The study shows the usefulness of creating avenues for older people’s continuous engagement in activities that allow social interaction. Finally, the study also illustrates how optimum ageing occurs as a culmination of life course events, making it imperative for social policies to facilitate sound human capital development, as they have implications for income and the creation of assets needed to fuel social interaction.
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Wilson, Alex J. "Mothers’ Wealth: Matrilineality and Inheritance Among the Fantse of Ghana." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1305062532.
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Bendlin, Andreas E. "Social complexity and religion at Rome in the second and first centuries BCE." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5591ee29-9497-4a1a-a1f2-9bbc56af7879.
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This thesis studies the religious system of the city of Rome and its immediate hinterland from the end of the Second Punic War to the emergence of autocratic rule shortly before the turn of the millennium. The Romans lacked a separate word for 'religion'. Scholars therefore hold that modern notions of religion, due to their Christianizing assumptions, cannot be applied to Roman religion, which consisted in public and social religious observance rather than in individual spirituality. The first chapter argues that Roman religion can be conceptualized as a system of social religious behaviour and individual motivational processes. A comparative definition of 'religion', which transcends Christianizing assumptions, is proposed to support this argument. In chapter two, modern interpretations of Roman religion, which view Republican religion as a 'closed system' in which religion is undifferentiated from politics and from public life, are criticized. It is argued that these interpretations start from unwarranted preconceptions concerning the interrelation of religion and society. Instead, I suggest that we should apply the model of an 'open system': the religious system at Rome was interrelated with its environment, but at the same time it could be conceptualized as being differentiated from other realms of social activity at Rome. Chapter three refutes the view that the identity of religion at Rome can be described by models of political or cultural identity. Instead, religious communication in Late Republican Rome was characterized by contextual rather than by substantive meanings. The fluidity of religious meaning in Late Republican Rome, a metropolis of nearly 1,000,000 inhabitants, implies that normative definitions of the constituents of Roman religion fail to convince. In relation to coloniae and municipia it is attempted to show that the religious system of Rome, a local religion geared to the physical city and its immediate hinterland, was not capable of becoming a universal religion. In the fourth chapter, the parameters organizing Roman religion are discussed. My thesis is that Roman religion in the Late Republic was decentralized in that religious authority was diffused and religious responsibilities were divided. In the city of Rome, there existed a market of religious alternatives, which was characterized by the compatibility of different deities and cults in a polytheistic context.
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Beaini, Nancy Scarlette. "Something old, something new : marriage customs among the Druze in the Shouf Mountains of Lebanon." PDXScholar, 1989. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3873.
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The focus of this research was to obtain, specifically, data on the marriage customs of the Druze in the Shouf Mountains of southeastern Lebanon. Ten Druze informants were selected and classified according to sex, age, marital status and religious status (sheik/sheika). A detailed questionnaire was designed to use during the interviews with these informants. However, after two interviews, it became apparent that a variable questionnaire was necessary to take advantage of the new, richly-detailed, cultural information that emerged with each informant. New questions were developed, in the field, to reflect and gather this new ethnographic data on Druze marriage customs.
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Stanger, James R., and University of Lethbridge Faculty of Arts and Science. "Comuneros : community and indigeneity in Saraguro, Ecuador." Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Anthropology, 2011, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/3077.
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This thesis examines the concept of the indigenous community in Saraguro,
Ecuador. I explore the myriad and co-existing ideas of community and community
participation at the local level, focusing on two of the defining practices of community
integration: monthly assemblies and communal labour parties. Acknowledging the role of
the state in the production of local communities, the historical and contemporary relations
between highland Ecuadorian indigenous communities and the state are examined in an
effort to contextualize the importance placed on communities as autonomous spaces.
Centering around a nationwide indigenous-led protest in May of 2010, ideas of mestizaje,
modernization, historical fears of the Indian, and community justice are discussed to help
analyze the continuously negotiated boundary between indigenous communities and the
nation-state. Finally, competing conceptualizations of indigeneity are examined with
respect to a recent neo-Inkaic cultural revitalization movement, partly NGO sponsored,
that has emerged in the area.
iiivii, 176 leaves ; 29 cm
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Cleal, Alizon M. "Five narratives of religious itinerary from the Bosomefi and Anowa families of Ian Oguaa in Fanteland, Ghana : a theological exploration of the affinity between the world-view of the Christian scriptures and the African primal world-view." Thesis, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/1900.
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The purpose of the study is to show the presence of Christ in Fanteland by treating five Fante ancestral and current narratives as analogues of Genesis XIV and interpreting the resulting interpenetrating Scripture and Fante narratives sensus plenior in the manner of Hebrews VII for Fante Christians, revealing the hidden presence of Christ in them. This is made possible by a postulate of an affinity between the Hebrew world view and that of the Fante. What is considered right behaviour in Fanteland is also resonant with the ethics in Hebrews. A section on ethics arising out of the presence of Christ in the narrative follows in each case. The first chapter is introductory giving the aim and objectives of the study the justification, scope and limitations. This is followed by the intellectual framework from secondary sources and the methodology used. In Chapter II there is a comparison of the world view of Hebrews and of Fanteland with a view to seeing their affinity. Chapters III -V give the literary and historical background to each narrative, the narratives themselves and a theological and ethical meditation. In conclusion the fruit of these meditations is summarized and an evaluation is made.Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.
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Afriyie, Ernestina. "A comparative study of Akan and biblical concepts of a human being : a study to illustrate a method of cross-cultural evangelism." Thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/3307.
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This study establishes what the Akan and Biblical concepts of a human being are in terms of origin, constitution, gender, body form, age, status, moral behaviour, ethnic affiliation, and communality. It then compares the Akan concepts with the Biblical concepts to see what the similarities are, and, what the differences are? The findings are that in terms of origin, constitution, gender, age, status, moral behaviour, ethnic affiliation and communality, the concepts are similar even though there are some differences. For example, while in both Akan and Biblical thought, the human being consists of material and immaterial components, the Akan have five components, namely, :Jkra, honhom, sunsum, mogya and nipadua, and the Biblical has three, body, soul and spirit. In terms of body form, Akan thought is completely different from Biblical thought. The presence of such differences in thought poses a problem in evangelism as it often leads to conflict. Yet this should not be for it then affects the effectiveness of evangelism. This study therefore illustrates how Akan culture, just as it is, can be interpreted by the Bible and thus establishes that it is possible to evangelise cross culturally without creating conflict so that the Christian faith can be integrated into the culture. This is possible only if evangelists know and understand the culture in which they try to evangelise, if they know what needs their beliefs and practices meet for them. The study proposes that for effective evangelism to take place, the church must take
up the study of cultures seriously and provide funds for it.Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.
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Adei, Stephen. "African traditional marriage and biblical patterns : the case of the Ashantis of Ghana." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1029.
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This dissertation compares the family and marriage traditions of the Ashantis of Ghana and Ancient Hebrews. Some common features characterize the two societies, principal among which is the idea that having children is the key purpose of marrieage above love and intimacy. Others are the low status of the wife in the domestic context; endogamy rules based on consanguinity; and payment of bride price.
However, the two traditions differ in important areas. For example, the Ashantis follow kinship system based on matrilineal descent, succession and inheritance and the girl child is preferred. The patriarchal system of the Ancient Hebrews invest all authority in the father and the male heirs is preferred. Other defining factor in Ashanti and Pentateuchcal marriage is their religion and belief systems. Much of the marriage traditions seem to be cultural references rather than religious imperatives binding on Christians today.Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies
Thesis (M.Th.)
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"雲南大理洱海東岸地區的地方社會與宗教." 2012. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5549016.
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張文偉."2012年8月".
"2012 nian 8 yue".
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-89).
Zhang Wenwei.
目錄 --- p.1
大理洱海東岸地圖 --- p.2
Chapter 第一章 --- 引言 --- p.3-12
Chapter 第二章 --- 南詔大理國至元代的佛教國家傳統概述 --- p.13-23
Chapter 第三章 --- 法力之水與地方之水 --- p.24-38
Chapter 第四章 --- 洪武十五年的天兵降臨洱海東 --- p.39-47
Chapter 第五章 --- 禮儀變奏曲 --- p.48-69
Chapter 第六章 --- 崇儒攘佛 --- p.70-74
Chapter 第七章 --- 結論 --- p.75-79
參考書目 --- p.80-89
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Adjei, Solomon Nii-Mensah. "[God] (God) in Ga tradition and Christian mission : an exploration of the historical relationship between the religious tradition of the Ga of South Eastern Ghana and Bible translation and its implications for Ga Christian theology." Thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/1285.
Full textAbstract:
In recent times, there are some indications which suggest an attempt to relegate the traditional or pre-Christian notion of Nyorjmo to the background in the face of recent Christian expansion within the Ga community. This may be observed basically in two forms. First is the attitude and thinking which attempt to separate Nyorjmo, who is considered a holy God, totally from the creation, considered unholy. This view suggests that Nyorjmo is holy and therefore his name cannot be attached to any aspect of the creation which is considered corrupted with sin and evil. In this regard, a distinction is thus made between Nyorjmo, the Supreme Being, and nyorjmo, rain. A new word nugbo,1 literally 'water stranger' or 'foreign water' has therefore emerged and is now being used for rain by some Ga. Secondly, there is the assumption, especially among some Ga Christians, that hitherto, the Ga did not know about God and that it was Christianity and the proclamation of the Christian message that introduced the knowledge of God into the Ga religious culture. These views are, however, contrary to the thoughts of the traditional Ga. The pre- Christian notion of Nyoymo is that of a Supreme Being, who is not far removed from creation but deeply involved in its daily activities. Thus one finds the name of Nyorjmo attached to some elements within the creation, as the configurations of Nyoymo2 indicate. Again, contrary to the views held by some Ga Christians, oral and early written sources indicate that the notion of Nyorjmo was well established within the Ga religious and social life before the coming of Christianity. However, one realises that with the influence of Christianity and Bible translation, the concept Nyorjmo has expanded and assumed a new meaning to become the Christian God of the Bible, 'the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' 1 E. T. A. Abbey, Kedzi Afo Yordan (Gbele Ke Yarafeemo), (Accra: Bureau of Ghana Languages, 1968), p 37. 2 Johanness Zimmermann, A Grammatical Sketch of the Akra - or Ga -Language and some Specimen of it from the mouth of the Natives, (Stuttgert: J. F. Steinkopf, 1858), pp 243-244. See also M. E. Kropp Dakubu, 'Linguistic Pre-History and Historical Reconstruction: the Ga-Adangme Migrations' in Transaction of the Historical Society of Ghana, Vol. XIII (i), (Legon, June 1972), p 119.
This research attempts to investigate the 'development' of Nyorjmo as a religious concept from its pre-Christian usage to the present. It looks at how Nyorjmo was recognised in the traditional religious life. This is done by analysing the general historical and religious backgrounds of the Ga people, focusing on key elements within the social, political, economic and religious settings. The work further assesses the impact of Christian influence on Ga culture, especially in the area of Bible translation, and also observes how the concept has gained a new meaning as a result of this engagement. The researcher concludes by exploring some of the implications raised in the work and attempts some suggestions on how Ga Christian theology may be developed to address these concerns.Ye bei nee amli ni Kristojamo ebahe shi ni loolo le aabo moderj ni agbe Kristojamo ashwa ye Ga shikpoji ano le, tamo noni hie miihe akpa boni wonuo wiemo 'Nyonmo' le shishi wohaa ye wo blema shihile mli aloo dani Kristojamo le bashe bie. Enejeo kpofann ye gbei srotoi enyo ano. Klerjklen le, tamo noni ye wo nifeemoi ke wo susumoi amli le wokaa ake woten Nyonmo he nfoniri ko. Noji ake wonaa ake eye Kronkron ni nohewo le esda ni ake egbei bataa adeboo noko he kwraa ejaake nofeeno ni yoo je le mli le kpa ye he ni ehe ewo muji ke esha. Enehewo le mei komei taoo ni amegbla Nyonmo ni ji Tse Ofe le ke nyonmo ni neo le ten. Arjoo nyonmo ni neo le ake nugbo.1 Emli jalemo ji nu ni ebato gbo. Nugbo nee ji gbei ni nmenerjmene le Gamei komei ketseo nyonmo ni neo nee. No ni ji enyo le, Ga Kristofoi komei susuo ake Gamei lee Nyonmo ye blema bei le amli. Ene le eji sane ni naa wa ni yoo ahuntoo. Ye neke mei nee asusumo naa le, Kristojamo ke Nyonmo wiemo le gbee ke shwamo le ji noni ha Gamei na le ake Nyonmo ko ye, ye amejamo ke shihile mli. Shi moy neke susumo nee, jee Ga shikweebii asusumo ni. Eke noni amele ye Nyonmo he kpda gbee kwraa. Anokwale le ji ake beni Kristojamo ba ko Ga shikpon le no beebe le, Gamei le Nyonmo ake Ofe ni eta adeboo fee no, ni asan ejieo eheshi ye adeboo nibii komei ke Gamei anifeemo nii ke ame daa gbi shihile mli. Ene hewo je ni woyoseo ake Gamei ke Nyonmo gbei le ebata adeboo mli nibii komei ahe le.2 Asan jwerjmo nee ni kristofoi komei yoo ye Nyonmo he le jee ja keke ni ejda, shi moy ye Gamei awiemo ke woji ni anmlafee amli le, ejeo kpo fanrj ake Gamei le Nyonmo ye ame jamo ke jen shihile fee mli dani Kristojamo ba. 1 E. T. A. Abbey, Kedzi Afo Yordan (Gbele Ke Yarafeemo), (Accra: Bureau of Ghana Languages, 1968), p 37. 2 Johanness Zimmermann, A Grammatical Sketch of the Akra - or Ga -Language and some Specimen of it from the mouth of the Natives, (Stuttgert: J. F. Steinkopf, 1858), pp 243-244. See also M. E. Kropp Dakubu, 'Linguistic Pre-History and Historical Reconstruction: the Ga-Adangme Migrations' in Transaction of the Historical Society of Ghana, Vol. XIII (i), (Legon, June 1972), p 119. Shi ksle, woyoseo hu ake Kristojamo ke IJmals Kronkron shishitsoomo eye ebua ni else shishinumo ni Gamei yoo ye Nyonmo he le mli: agbene Gamsi naa Nyonmo ake Kristofoi aNyonmo, moni IJmale Kronkron yeo ehe odase ake eji wo Nuntso ke Yiwalaherelo Yesu Kristo Tse le. Oti ni yoo mi ninmaa nss mli ji ake magbls shi ni matao boni Gamei naa Nyonmo ye ame jamo ke ams shihils mli amshaa, ksjs blema, dani Kristojamo ba ks agbene tsakemoi srotoi ni eba ksje nakai bei le amli aahuu kebashi nmsns. Boni afee ni mi nine ashe oti nss he Is, mitao Gamsi ayino saji ks ams blema shihils amli, ni titri Is mikws ame jen shihils, mankuramo, nitsumoi, jarayeli ke jamoi fee aks meni abaanye akaseys nibii nee amli. Nokome hu ni mifee ye nikasemo nee mliji ake, mikws shishinumo hee ni Gamsi ena ye Nyonmo he, titri Is kstso IJmals Kronkron le shishitsoomo no, ks agbene boni Kristojamo hu etsake ams ashihils eha, ketso IJmale Kronkron Is kanemo no. Mimu shibgblsmo nee naa ke naawoo: gbe no ni abaatso ni Kristo he nilee baa shwere ye Gamsi aten. Eji mihemoksyeli aks nikasemo hee ni jso shigblsmo nee mli Is baa hsle Gamei ashi, titri le Kristofoi, koni ameyose ake nibii babaoo ye ame jen shihile ke blema saji amli ni baaye ebua ams bo ni afee ni ams nu Nyonmo shishi jogbann ni asan ams nys ameja le ye ame disrjtss ams shishinumo naa ksjetj shihils mli.
Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermartzburg, 2006.