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Larsson, August, and Carolina Karlsson. "Ordning och oreda : En innehållsanalys av framställningen av den romska befolkningen i två svenska dagstidningar." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-43889.
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The Romani people have, since their arrival in Europe during the turn of the last millennia, been the subject of stigmatization and hatred. Despite efforts to end discrimination against the Romani population, they remain one of the most stigmatized groups throughout Europe. Media has often been blamed for presenting and reproducing stereotypes concerning the Romani people consequently further cementing preconceived notions about the group. Numerous researchers have studied how these stereotypes are manifested as well as the underlying reasons behind their existence in both Swedish and international ether and printed media published in the last few decades. In contrast to prior research, this study investigates how the Romani people have been portrayed and the reasons behind these portrayals during a more extensive historical period than done prior. Using a traditional approach to content-analysis, selected months and years between 1914-2013 are examined in two of the largest newspapers in Sweden. The results are then analyzed using postcolonial theory and Mary Douglas´ theory presented in the influential work Purity and Danger. In short, our analysis indicates that stereotypical representations of the Romani population, as well as various societal strategies for dealing with the group, are found throughout the examined period. The representations and strategies presented pre-world war II could, undoubtedly, be considered brutal and inhumane, while the representations and societal strategies found post-world war II could be regarded as less hostile and more benevolent whilst still at times stereotypical and oppressive. Despite certain positive changes regarding the representation of the Romani people and more humane suggested strategies for dealing with the group, the interests of the Romani people nevertheless remain secondary to the interest of the ruling elite, who above all aim to maintain power and establish order in society. Our ambition with this research is to contribute to a more extensive understanding of how the Romani people have been portrayed historically. In addition, we hope that the use of, in the subject area, new theoretical framework can contribute to new insights regarding the political elite and media´s influence on shaping the general population´s perception of ethnic minorities in society.
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Arendse, Roger. "The Significance of the Cultural Anthropology of Mary Douglas and Bruce Malina for New Testament Interpretation." University of Western Cape, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/7465.
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Magister Theologiae - MThThe Bible, a treasure of all Christian churches, contains the irreplaceable primary documents of the Christian faith. The Bible is also a collection of ancient documents, written in strange and even exotic languages of other ages and cultures. Much in the Bible is foreign to urbanized Western civilization and requires exploration. The Bible is also the major source of information about the history of Israel in pre-Christian times and the origins of the Christian faith and the Christian Church. Under all these aspects the Bible has been the source of information and doctrine, of faith and hope. lts interpretation has also been a battleground, for men's (sic.) hopes and most deeply held convictions are buttressed from the Bible, differences as to what the Bible says or how to read it provoke violent debate (Krentz 1975: 1).
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Tambascia, Christiano Key 1976. "Estrutura e sentido no africanismo de Mary Douglas = a etnografia no Congo Belga e o campo acadêmico britanico." [s.n.], 2010. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/280697.
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Orientador: Maria Suely KofesTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T15:56:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tambascia_ChristianoKey_D.pdf: 58551011 bytes, checksum: f2f810ee0c423fae40f9579fab081eb6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010
Resumo: Mary Douglas realizou sua pesquisa de campo na região do Kasai, no Congo Belga, no final da década de 1940 e começo da década de 1950. Nos anos seguintes, dedicou-se à teoria africanista e logrou inserir-se na academia britânica de meados do século passado. A antropóloga já indicava, neste período, algumas das questões que desenvolveria posteriormente, a partir da publicação de seu livro mais conhecido, Pureza e Perigo, de 1966. Se a teoria produzida depois de sua fase africanista fez com que Douglas se tornasse célebre mesmo fora dos círculos antropológicos britânicos, pouco foi estudado acerca da maneira como a antropóloga utilizou seus dados etnográficos na constituição de suas formulações sobre a relação entre os rituais simbólicos de pertencimento e exclusão, e a constituição das relações sociais. Um estudo das regras e dos constrangimentos do campo africanista, bem como das redes de sociabilidade de seus grupos hegemônicos, permite que se possa articular a experiência de Mary Douglas em suas interlocuções teóricas, com a trajetória de sua carreira antropológica. As continuidades de sua obra, entre seu trabalho etnográfico e suas preocupações desenvolvidas a partir de Pureza e Perigo, bem como as escolhas e os caminhos percorridos, possibilitam analisar, sob uma outra luz, a construção de seus argumentos.
Abstract: Mary Douglas conducted her fieldwork research in the Kasai region, in the Belgian Congo, at the end of the 1940's and the beginning of the 1950's. In the following years, she devoted her work to africanist theory and managed to be a part of the British academic field of that period. Then, the anthropologist had already approached some of the matters she would later develop, with the publication of her most known book, Purity and Danger, of 1966. If the theory constructed after her africanist period made Douglas renowned even outside the British anthropological circles, very little was studied about the way the anthropologist made use of her ethnographic data in the construction of her analysis on the relationship between the symbolic rituals of belonging and exclusion, and the constitution of social relations. A study of the rules and constraints of the africanist field, as well as of the sociability networks of its hegemonic groups, allows the articulation of Mary Douglas's experience in her theoretic dialogues, with the trajectory of her anthropological career. The continuities of her work, between her ethnographic research and the concerns she developed after Purity and Danger, as well as the choices made and the paths traveled, allow to cast a different light upon the construction of her arguments.
Doutorado
Antropologia Social
Doutor em Antropologia Social
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Dutton, Edward Croft. "Liminality, communitas and student evangelical groups : a critique of the group theories of Victor Turner and Mary Douglas." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2005. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU205736.
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This thesis critiques aspects of the work of Mary Douglas and Victor Turner. It develops previous criticisms and pursues them in greater depth, questioning the degree to which these respective models are universal. It is a mainly anthropological study of the relationship between a university and the largest evangelical group operative at that university. It draws upon participant observation fieldwork with Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, Aberdeen University Christian Union and Navigators Studenten Leiden. This thesis examines the degree of liminality at each university and compares this to the degree of liminality and communitas observed in the university's evangelical group, Firstly it criticises Turner's understanding of liminality and communitas. It argues that liminality can, in fact, be highly structured and that communitas is not necessarily an absence or near-absence of structure. It suggests that the more liminal a situation is the more communitas there will be on one level but the more structure there will be on another. In making this argument, the thesis argues that university is a Rite of Passage and liminal phase. It demonstrates that the more liminal the university, the more structured the evangelical group will be, the tighter the group's boundaries will be and the more differentiated the group will be. But, at the same time, the mores structured the evangelical groups are, the greater communitas it finds in their ritual activity. Oxford is found to be the most liminal university and Leiden the least. Thus it criticises the underlying assumptions of Douglas' "Grid/Group" Model as well as Turner's. In order to examine the degree of structure and differentiation in the group, the thesis looks at members' use of language, their religious beliefs, life-style beliefs, the nature of their meetings, the significance of conversation and the clothes they wear. In order to assess the degree of communitas at the meetings, the thesis examines the degree of communitas caused by prayers, hymns, public speakers, Bible Studies and Testimony.
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Frölander, John. "Renhet och smuts i personarkivet : Ett antropologiskt perspektiv på ordnandet och förtecknandet av personarkiv." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för ABM, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-253299.
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Personal archives are a largely neglected subject in archival theory. Among the consequences of this is the absenceof any general established or formalized practices when it comes to arrangement and description. Thisstudy opposes the notion that an archival institution without formal systems of arrangement and description doesnot order and describe archives in accordance with a general conceptual framework of a correct order. Supportingitself on the anthropological theory of Mary Douglas on dirt and cleanliness, it studies the implicit notions oforder that can be found in the archival descriptions of the personal archives kept by the Swedish national archives.Several patterns where revealed by the study: among them the primacy of quantity stood out. The vaguesystem of categories based on Martin Grass description model appears only to be employed loyally where quantitiesof the particular categories are such that they constitute complete volumes, which seem to be the cardinaljustifier of categorical division within the archive. The model itself is rarely applied with orthodoxy, and itsroughness often means that the categories engage in “border clashes” over which documents belong in whichcategory. Though these are often caused and generally determined by quantities, they also reveal an internalhierarchy of relations between specific types of records and categories. Furthermore, certain categories appearsmore stable than others, and when Grass system collapses, it reveals how certain of them – based on a principleof pertinence or theme – habitually fall out of use whereas categories defined by document types appear to remainfar more stable even in smaller archives and archives with low degree of differentiation.
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Raby, Elyse J. "Toward an Intercorporeal Body of Christ: A Study in Ecclesial Body Images." Thesis, Boston College, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:109196.
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Thesis advisor: Richard R. GaillardetzThis dissertation analyzes the various images of the body in the metaphor of the church as a body, or the body of Christ, in modern Catholic ecclesiology in order to reimagine the corporeal metaphor for postconciliar ecclesiology. The metaphor of the church as a body has a vertical dimension expressing the relationship between Christ and the church and a horizontal dimension expressing the relationships among Christians. In its vertical dimension, “body” has been understood as ‘self’ and/or as ‘spouse.’ In its horizontal dimension, the body has been understood as a living organism and/or as an ordered society. In the magisterial tradition especially, the body is described as a well-bounded and hierarchically ordered organism, in which members are united under a head and share in one common life, and which manifests the person to the world. The metaphor of the church as a body, then, has most often been used to express and justify papal authority and primacy and the exclusion of non-Catholics from the body of Christ, and to posit the Catholic Church as the ongoing manifestation of Christ’s presence and authority. This dissertation utilizes the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty to challenge these notions of the body, showing instead that the body is ‘intercorporeal’—interwoven with other bodies, united by meaningful action, and having flexible boundaries. The body is the necessary foundation of existence in the world, but can also inhibit personal presence as well. In light of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, this dissertation argues for a vision of the church as an intercorporeal body—a missionary, dialogical, and decentralized body that is capable of mediating, but also inhibiting, the presence of Christ to the world
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Theology
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Besterman-Dahan, Karen. "Cultural Factors and Concepts of Pollution: Colorectal Cancer and Health Behaviors among Ashkenazi Jewish Women." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2008. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0002720.
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Johansson, Jennie. ""I'm designed to kill" : En kritisk diskursanalys av fyra vampyrfilmer mellan 1979-2016 med hjälp av Mary Douglas teorier om renhet, orenhet och anomalier." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-36232.
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Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att analysera fyra vampyrfilmer med Mary Douglas teori för att se hur föreställningar om renhet, orenhet och anomalier framställs samt ifall dessa föreställningar har förändrats i de fyra utvalda filmerna mellan 1979-2016. Med kritisk diskursanalys som metod har filmerna Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), The Lost Boys (1987), Twilight (2008) samt Daylight's end (2016) analyserats genom en tematisering av vampyrers egenskaper där en jämförelse dem emellan gjorts. Uppsatsens resultat visar att vampyrer som befinner sig i ett tillstånd mellan liv och död anses vara anomalier, vilka har hanterats på olika sätt av respektive samhällen. Vissa vampyrer har ett mer moraliskt förhållningssätt gentemot människor då de valt bort att äta människoblod och blir därför mer accepterade av samhället, medan andra vampyrer har ett omoraliskt beteende, vilket gör att de då elimineras. Det som anses orent i ett samhälle har blivit vardagligt i ett annat och ju mer mänskliga egenskaper vampyrerna har desto mer accepterade är de av samhället.
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Svanström, Emma. "Myten om Palme : En texttolkning av dokumentären Palme och dess skildring av det sociala minnet efter Olof Palme som norm eller anomali." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-26481.
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”The myth of Palme- a textual analysis of the documentary Palme and its description of the social memory of Olof Palme as a norm or anomaly” by Emma Svanström aims to analyze how the directors of the documentary Palme choose to present Olof Palme to the future generations. Also the goal is to find out if their version presents Palme as a person who followed the norms or was divergent. To this purpose the thesis use textual analysis combined with a quantitative method in search of which persons the directors give the right to form the myth of Palme and which keywords they use to do describe him. To view the film as a social memory in the transformation to a myth the thesis use Jan Assmans theory of social memory and to find out if the documentary describes Palme as following the norms or divergent it uses Mary Douglas theory of anomaly. The results show that it is mainly the narrator and Olof Palme that gets to form the myth of him but also his family, friends, fellow employees and other persons that met him or was affected by his actions. Palme is discribed as special, intelligent, interested in social politics and able to act as he saw fit even if it was against the norms. He is above all described as a complex person with many and sometimes contradicting sides. Some of these actions and characteristics’ are viewed as following the norms while others are shown as anomalies.
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Stridh, Ellinor. "Flickan, gudinnan och kvinnan : En analys av kumaritraditionen i Katmandudalen." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-103475.
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The aim of this study is to contribute to the research about the role of rituals in the construction of social identity of women in Newar society. By studying the Kumari tradition, I explore how religious traditions play a role in maintaining social values and gender roles. Following this, I analyze how this role contributes to the continuation of the practice in the face of calls for its abolition in recent years. Of central importance is the controversy surrounding the Kumari tradition fueled by criticism from the UN and western media alleging that the religious practice of Kumari worship is a violation of children’s rights. This study also discusses changes in the Kumari tradition between 1996-2008, resulting in greater acknowledgement of the child’s social needs, both during and after her rule. The issue of the ‘anomalous’ position of former Kumari and how Nepalese society attempts to deal with it is also brought to light.
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Perreault, Olivier. "Pollution rituelle et pollution de l'environnement dans le processus de mobilisation des Shipibo-Conibo de Canaan (Amazonie péruvienne) : une interprétation écologiste de la thèse de Mary Douglas." Thesis, Université Laval, 2009. http://www.theses.ulaval.ca/2009/26663/26663.pdf.
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Johnson, Jessica. "Stardom, Spectacle, Show, and Salability: United Artists and the Founding of the Hollywood Blockbuster Model." Chapman University Digital Commons, 2019. https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/film_studies_theses/3.
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United Artists was an independent film distribution company that Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford jointly formed in 1919 to maintain creative autonomy over their work. Without the benefit of block booking practices through studio-owned theater houses, each founding artist established specific economic and aesthetic practices within their respective oeuvres in order to maintain company solvency. The resulting films produced during the company’s formative years (1919-1931) saw increased emphasis and innovation in regard to stardom, spectacle, show, and salability, features which ultimately innovated the model for the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster. Attributing the formation of the blockbuster to United Artists not only complicates the notion of the Hollywood blockbuster as a post-World War II phenomenon, but also broadens our comprehension of blockbuster filmmaking by formulating a model in which one can refine blockbuster criteria. This reframes the blockbuster as the cornerstone of the Hollywood film industry for over a century and presents it as a more persistent phenomenon.
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Mudd, Shaun Anthony. "Constructive drinking in the Roman Empire : the first to third centuries AD." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/18157.
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This thesis explores ancient ideas regarding the constructive properties of intoxicating drinks, as presented in Greco-Roman sources from the first to third centuries AD. In doing so, it responds to Mary Douglas' Constructive Drinking (1987), which emphasised that, contrary to anthropological findings, many societies' authorities tend to focus upon, and overemphasise, the destructive aspects of alcohol consumption. This pattern is particularly prevalent in modern Western scholarship. The same trend can be detected within both Greco-Roman society and classical scholarship. Although many Greeks and Romans undoubtedly consumed quantities of wine, on a regular basis, in a manner which was widely considered 'moderate', the literary evidence from this period tends to focus most heavily upon excessive and/or destructive drinking. Similarly, much of the modern scholarship which addresses drinking in the Roman Empire focuses upon drunkenness and the destructive aspects of drinking. Yet it is clear that Greco-Roman society considered wine consumption to be significantly beneficial, in a wide variety of ways, provided that moderation was employed. The destructive consequences of drinking were almost exclusively associated with excessive and inappropriate consumption. In reaction to this bias in the sources and scholarship, this thesis undertakes a re-reading of the ancient evidence through the 'Constructive Drinking' lens. It identifies and explores the ways in which the Greeks and Romans of this period considered drinking to be important, useful, or otherwise 'constructive' to the individual and society. Where possible, this thesis attempts to identify how important and widespread such beliefs were. This thesis has two main areas of focus. First, the ways in which intoxicating drink was considered to be constructive for an individual's health and wellbeing. Second, the ways in which intoxicating drink was considered to be of social benefit to both individuals and groups. This thesis accordingly provides a fresh perspective on drinking in antiquity, and illustrates the methodological significance of the Constructive Drinking lens for future research.
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Ivarsson, Linnéa. "Memento Mitten : Re-Collecting Human Hair as a Material." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för design (DE), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-99175.
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Memento Mitten is a project about seeing human hair from the perspective of sustainability as a viable alternative material. The project also aims to question our reluctance in Western Europe to use it in projects and innovations. It explores the process of transforming hair from waste into a functional piece (a mitten) by using traditional handicraft (hand carding, hand spinning and nålbinding) as a change agent in order to alter our perception of hair. Relating anthropologist Mary Douglas’ theory on dirt to the Freudian definition of ‘Das Unheimliche’ (The Uncanny) the project further examines and dissects the emotional aspects of Uncanniness and the anxiety we perceive when in contact with disembodied hair. Leaning on Douglas’ theory on dirt I developed a framework for action that could potentially have the transformative ability to, when applied to creative practices, recontextualize hair from uncanny waste into an emotionally safe material. Utilizing auto-ethnographic documentation, physical exploration and participatory elements (through design interventions), four phases were identified: rejection (identifying hair as waste), re-collection (collecting hair), dissolution (taking apart the hair through acts like hand carding) and assimilation (putting the hair into a new context). These phases, which I titled The Altered Phases of Dirt, showed that they had the potential to move our inner margins of comfort beyond Uncanniness through the physical engagement found in handicraft.
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Marzec, Megan E. "Wastelands, Revolutions, Failures." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors1429889399.
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Venter, Schalk (Dawid Schalk Willem). "The people's typography : a social semiotic account on the relationship between 'township typography' and South African mainstream cultural production." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/20278.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis presents an analysis of ‘township typography’ as a complex visual dialect generated by various economic and historical factors within the South African social landscape. A combination of specific tools, skills-sets and applications has produced a body of typographic letterforms that can be visually distinguished from standardised letterforms found in mainstream typography. Due to the origin of these letterforms, as well as their distinct appearance, ‘township typography’ has the capacity to evoke specific social, cultural or demographic structures in systems of communication. This study reveals that typographic features from ‘township typography’ are drawn into mainstream cultural production, particularly in the field of local advertising, as the result of a complex process of incorporation and institutional consecration.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis bied ‘n analise van ‘township tipografie’ as ‘n komplekse visuele dialek wat gegenereer word deur verskeie ekonomiese en historiese faktore eie aan die Suid- Afrikaanse sosiale landskap. Die spesifieke kombinasie van gereedskap, vaardighede en aanwendings lei tot ‘n liggaam van lettertipes wat visueel onderskei kan word van die standaard wat in hoofstroom tipografie voorkom. Vanweë hierdie dialek se oorsprong, asook die kenmerkende voorkoms daarvan, het ‘township tipografie’ die vermoë om spesifieke sosiale, kulturele en demografiese strukture in kommunikasie op te roep. Hierdie studie toon hoe eienskappe eie aan ‘township tipografie’ weens ‘n komplekse proses van inkorporasie en institusionele inseëning in hoofstroom kulturele produksie opgeneem word, veral op die gebied van plaaslike advertensiewese.
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McGowin, Emily Hunter. "As for Me and My House: The Theology of the Family in the American Quiverfull Movement." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1449662940.
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Watkins, Emily Stuart. "“That I should always listen to my body and love it”: Finding the Mind-Body Connection in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Slave Texts." VCU Scholars Compass, 2011. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/2363.
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This thesis explores the presence of the movement theories of Irmgard Bartenieff, Peggy Hackney, and Rudolf Von Laban in the following texts: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Written by Himself (1845), The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave (1831), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, Linda Brent (1861), Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose (1986) and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987). The terms and phrases of movement theory will be introduced to the contemporary critical discussion already surrounding the texts, both furthering and challenging existing arguments.
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Matteoni, Francesca. "Blood beliefs in early modern Europe." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/4523.
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This thesis focuses on the significance of blood and the perception of the body in both learned and popular culture in order to investigate problems of identity and social exclusion in early modern Europe. Starting from the view of blood as a liminal matter, manifesting fertile, positive aspects in conjunction with dangerous, negative ones, I show how it was believed to attract supernatural forces within the natural world. It could empower or pollute, restore health or waste corporeal and spiritual existence. While this theme has been studied in a medieval religious context and by anthropologists, its relevance during the early modern period has not been explored. I argue that, considering the impact of the Reformation on people’s mentalities, studying the way in which ideas regarding blood and the body changed from late medieval times to the eighteenth century can provide new insights about patterns of social and religious tensions, such as the witch-trials and persecutions. In this regard the thesis engages with anthropological theories, comparing the dialectic between blood and body with that between identity and society, demonstrating that they both spread from the conflict of life with death, leading to the social embodiment or to the rejection of an individual. A comparative approach is also employed to analyze blood symbolism in Protestant and Catholic countries, and to discuss how beliefs were influenced by both cultural similarities and religious differences. Combining historical sources, such as witches’ confessions, with appropriate examples from anthropology I also examine a corpus of popular ideas, which resisted to theological and learned notions or slowly merged with them. Blood had different meanings for different sections of society, embodying both the physical struggle for life and the spiritual value of the Christian soul. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 develop the dualism of the fluid in late medieval and early modern ritual murder accusations against Jews, European witchcraft and supernatural beliefs and in the medical and philosophical knowledge, while chapters 5 and 6 focus on blood themes in Protestant England and in Counter-Reformation Italy. Through the examination of blood in these contexts I hope to demonstrate that contrasting feelings, fears and beliefs related to dangerous or extraordinary individuals, such as Jews, witches, and Catholic saints, but also superhuman beings such as fairies, vampires and werewolves, were rooted in the perception of the body as an unstable substance, that was at the base of ethnic, religious and gender stereotypes.
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Vacíková, Tereza. "Kritické zhodnocení teorie čarodějnictví u Mary Douglas." Master's thesis, 2013. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-321373.
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This diploma thesis has two aims. The first one is exploration of "Grid/Group Theory" as it was presented by its author Mary Douglas in "Cultural Bias" (1978). According to this theory the thinking in the idiom of witchcraft is a product of an perception of specific social structure by an individual. The crux of this thesis should be comparation of social structure of few African societies with their cosmologies according to the empirical materials. It should proof the validation of the theory and also show some dificulties which the student must face during the application. The second aim is description of witchcraft and sorcery phenomenon and attempt to determine its essence or function for society.
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Du, Plooy Belinda. "`Can't nothing heal without pain' : healing in Toni Morrison's Beloved." Diss., 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1001.
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Toni Morrison reinterprets and reconstitutes American history by placing the lives, stories and experiences of African Americans in a position of centrality, while relegating white American history and cultural traditions to the margins of her narratives. She rewrites American history from an alternative - African American woman's - perspective, and subverts the accepted racist and patriarchally inspired `truths' about life, love and women's experiences through her sympathetic depiction of murderous mother love and complex female relationships in Beloved. She writes about oppression, pain and suffering, and of the need for the acknowledgement and alleviation of the various forms of oppression that scar human existence. Morrison's engagement with healing in Beloved forms the central focus of this short dissertation. The novel is analysed in relation to Mary Douglas's `Two Bodies' theory, John Caputo's ideas on progressive Foucaultian hermeneutics and healing gestures, and Julia Martin's thoughts on alternative healing practices based on non-dualism and interconnectedness. Within this interdisciplinary context, Beloved is read as a `small start' to `creative engagement' with alternative healing practices (Martin, 1996:104).English
M.A. (English)
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Boone, M. L. (Micahij Leon). "Ideology of ‘neighbor’ : a theology of transformation from a theological-ethical interpretation of Leviticus 19." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/28978.
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Chapter one gives a proposed outline for the research that will develop the theological-ethical dimension of neighbor as discerned from Leviticus 19. This chapter will give the reader an understanding of the purpose, motivation, and a hypothesis for the proposed research. An outline of the impending study will also be highlighted. In chapter two a brief discussion of two events and the evangelical denomination that have shaped my worldview will be highlighted. This chapter will also explore the diverse world of ideological criticism. A look at the wide ranging areas of specialties within ideological criticism will be the focus of this chapter. The way in which ideological criticism will be utilized as an interpretive methodology will be argued alongside Mary Douglas’ ring composition as a function of socio-rhetorical criticism. A grammatical analysis of Leviticus 19 will comprise chapter three. The Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible will be the primary source for this analysis. The exegesis of Leviticus will be the foundation for the study of the proposed topic. The purpose for the historical setting of the writing of Leviticus 19 will be given as well as archaeological evidence describing the societal make-up of the time period. An alternative interpretative emphasis will be argued in chapter four. Ring composition, as outlined by Mary Douglas, will be the tool utilized for this interpretation for Leviticus 19. This chapter will also explore the ways in which three New Testament characters utilized and contextualized passages from Leviticus 19. Chapter five will spotlight the recent events of May 2008. This month demonstrated the explosive consequences of unleashed and uncontrolled xenophobic violence. This month saw some of the most terrifying events since the inception of democracy in South Africa. Commentary and deliberation on the causes that sparked this violence will be examined through the eyes of journalists, politicians, citizens, foreigners and religious leaders. The reluctance of evangelicals to engage in social transformation will be critically analyzed in chapter six. Two movements that polarized the evangelical community will also be addressed. The thrust of this chapter will be the proposed theology of transformation. If this strategy of transformation might be utilized by the evangelical church, sustainable social justice could be possible. This strategy will be presented in a practical, applicable manner. The interrelationship between spiritual and social transformation will conclude this chapter. All of these will be encapsulated within the idea of ubuntu or African hospitality. Chapter seven will bring to a conclusion the research. There is a short synopsis of past and present religious creeds and statements of faith. The Hitler Effect will be examined in the light of how people focus on the minute differences instead of celebrating their overwhelming similarities. The events of November 2008 in America will be viewed through the refining lenses of society and its effect within greater society. This chapter will conclude with a summary of the study, reflections and future considerations.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
Practical Theology
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Oudová, Holcátová Barbara. "Náboženství a společnost v Koránu a jejich vztah k předislámské Arábii." Master's thesis, 2014. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-341328.
Full textAbstract:
My goal in this thesis is to concentrate on the origins of Islam as we can understand it from the Quran itself, without using other, later sources. At the same time, I am interested in the relationship between pre-Islamic Arabia and early Islam. My method will be based primarily on Mary Douglas and her grid- group analysis. This British anthropologist attempted to analyse different social situations, in which various systems of understanding the world are formulated, using the parameters of "group" (the degree to which the borders of a group are defined) and "grid" (the number of rules by which an individual is controlled). These two parameters then made it possible for her to classify different cosmologies according to their ideas and their social reality. Applying this method, I will attempt to extract from the Quran - not primarily a narrative text - a description of the change of early Muslims' social situation and development of their religious ideas which is connected to it, and I will attempt to use Mary Douglas' anthropology to explain how such a transformation happened and could happen. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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McEwin, Emma. "The many lives of Douglas Mawson." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/119637.
Full textAbstract:
Vol. 1 [Creative work] The many lives of Douglas Mawson -- Vol. 2 [Exegesis] Negotiating biographical boundariesThe Many Lives of Douglas Mawson, the first volume of this PhD, is a collection of non-fiction vignettes about the Mawson family. As an exploration of ‗the many lives of Douglas Mawson‘ from his public image as an explorer to his private roles as a husband and father, it considers the making and unmaking of myths surrounding a nationally iconic figure, and explores the impact of Mawson‘s legacy on family lives across generations. The work, which consists of a preface and seven chapters, deals with different themes that open onto Mawson‘s known and lesser-known histories. Inspired by objects and artefacts which have circulated over the years both within the family sphere and in the public domain, each chapter revolves around different material traces of Mawson‘s legacy: public ones, such as his hut which still stands at Commonwealth Bay, and private ones, such as family letters and portraits. -- Negotiating Biographical Boundaries, the second part of this thesis, considers the challenges, the constraints and the myriad decisions and considerations involved when writing about the lives of others. Chapter one is a discussion of Virginia Woolf‘s two essays, ‗The New Biography‘ and ‗The Art of Biography‘ which were pivotal in initiating a conversation about the perils and dilemmas of the genre, in particular the difficulties of how to treat facts and how to navigate the border between withholding and revealing information. In chapters two and three, through an analysis of a number of biographical works, including several by and about Woolf, I consider the ways in which life writers have negotiated the ‗biographical boundaries‘ of genre and form, of public and private, fact and fiction, detachment and involvement, and how far biography has evolved and in some cases departed from the ideals of ‗the new biography‘. In chapter four I look at the genre of ‗fictional biography‘ in which imaginative acts take precedence over facts, turning conventional biography on its head and unsettling notions of objectivity and truth in life writing. The exegesis includes but is not limited to discussion of biographies of Mawson published between 1977 and 2013. The writing of my thesis has coincided with the centenary of Mawson‘s Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-1914, during which time new works have been published and his heroic status has come under question. The studies of him discussed here represent a variety of biographical approaches and interpretations which raise different questions about the limits and possibilities of biography. In the final chapter I position my creative work in the field and discuss my own objectives and challenges in trying to portray the life of Douglas Mawson, and the lives that influenced and were a part of his.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2015
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Širl, Radim. "Narativy a náboženství: specifika a funkce příběhů v náboženských kontextech." Master's thesis, 2016. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-343089.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this thesis is to analyse certain aspects connecting religion and narration (which is understood here as a common human faculty to think and express oneself in the form of narratives). The first part of the thesis is concerned with methodology; first of all, the issues of defining narrative are introduced and a more elaborate definition is presented. A complete methodology is then formulated with a help of several authors (mainly James W. Pennebaker and Mary Douglas) in order to distinguish particularities and functions of creating narratives in religious contexts. Two main points are stressed here: that the content of the narratives is often concerned with problematic aspects of experience and that the expression of these narratives is beneficial for their creators. The second part focuses on several religious institutions concerned with creation of narratives which are interpreted with the outlined methodology. In this manner, the act of confession in Catholicism, prayer in Christianity and certain healing rituals are described and interpreted. Conclusions of this thesis should help the reader get a basic idea of the way created narratives in religious contexts affect their authors.
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Barry, Christopher. "An anthropological approach to the New Testament? : a critical analysis of Mary Douglas's "Grid/group" model with respect to understanding the dynamics of the early Corinthian church, as alluded to in 1 Corinthians, and particularly 14:33B-36 & 11:17-34." Thesis, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/5890.
Full textAbstract:
The last three decades has seen a significant shift in the discipline of New
Testament studies. In particular we have observed the rise of the social
sciences and with them, new methodologies which have eclipsed the more
traditional "criticisms" such as form criticism and source criticism. New
Testament scholars have realised that we can no longer afford to ignore these advances, and have produced a prolific amount of work which draws upon sociology in particular, and also social anthropology and psychology.
Despite the consensus that the social sciences are able to provide invaluable tools for the study of the New Testament, the research that has drawn on these tools has not been without critique. A common thread to these evaluations is that the focus is so exclusively social scientific that the text often becomes lost in the endeavour. When the text is referred to, it is used not unlike a proof text - to prove the suspicions one has already formed. Similarly, we have noticed that those literary studies which relate more to the structure, plot and themes of a text may become so focused on specific words, tenses and so on, that the actual people and context of the text become lost in the exercise. Therefore our challenge is to develop an approach that takes both the social sciences and the text into equal account. This thesis is then an experiment in method. In the quest for an inclusive and holistic approach to the New Testament, we propose to combine Mary Douglas's anthropological "grid/group" model with a series of questions developed by Howard Kee which are aimed at "Interrogating the text". Having discussed a number of methodological considerations we suggest a four step approach which we believe will enable us to analyze the New Testament from a comprehensively anthropological perspective, while at the same time considering the text responsibly and fully. As a test of our methodology we first analyze the complete text of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, and then compare our approach with a similarly anthropological method adopted by Stephen Barton in his 1986 article
entitled, Paul's sense of place: an anthropological approach to community
formation in Corinth (1) which discusses the specific texts of 1 Cor. 1:17-34
and 14:33b-36. The results of this test were mixed. On the one hand our methodology provided a detailed examination of the views held by both the Corinthians and Paul which we were able to contrast. Our use of Douglas's "grid/group" "model also allowed a certain amount of prediction as to how these players would likely have responded to events. However, we discovered that the questions used to "Interrogate the text" are somewhat tedious and repetitive. Therefore, some modification and refinement of these questions would be advocated. (1.) New Testament Studies, vol. 32, pp. 225-246.Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.