Die Dissertation "Löwinnen von Juda. Frauen als Subjekte politischer Macht in der judäischen Königszeit" behandelt den möglichen Anteil von Frauen innerhalb von Politik und Verwaltung des antiken Juda (c. 950-589 v.Chr). Eingesetzt wird mit einem kurzen Überblick zu Leben und Arbeit von Frauen in der Epoche. Hierbei erfolgt erstmals eine systematische Zusammenstellung bislang publizierter Frauensiegel. In einem zweiten Schritt werden Frauen am Jerusalemer Königshof in den Blick genommen und besonders ihr Part im "öffentlichen Leben" diskutiert. Hiervon gesondert wird die in der bisherigen Forschung aufgestellte These von einer "weiblichen Leitungsfuktion" am Jerusalemer Hof diskutiert, dem sog. "Gebirah-Amt", das meist von den Müttern der Könige von Juda besetzt worden sein soll. In einem letzten Schritt wird das die politischen Aktivitäten ebendieser Königsmütter betreffende Material untersucht. / "Lionesses of Judah. Women as agents of political power in Ancient Judah" deals with the part women might have played within the politics and administration in the classical period of the Judean Kingdom (c. 950-589 BC). After an introductory chapter, the second chapter sketches briefly what is known on women?s occupations in that period in general. Specail attention is drawn to the existence of a fair number of seals bearing women?s names: The function of these seals equials a credit card in modern times in signifying its owner?s economic and hence possibly political power. The third chapter focusus on women?s presence an functions at the royal court in Jerusalem. Former research in the field having hypothesised that the Hebrew word "Gevirah" denotes a specific office at the Judean court held exclusively by females, viz. the queen mothers, both the meaning of the Hebrew word and the attached theory are exxamined in great detail in the fourth chapter. The last chapter discusses the known material on the diverse political activities of the Judean queen mothers in chronological order.

This thesis draws on Freud to understand the innate human need to create boundaries and argues that ambivalence is an inescapable dilemma in their creation. It argues that a re-reading of Freud’s major thesis in Totem and Taboo via an engagement with the Dionysos myth and cult scholarship allows for a new understanding of dominant forms of hegemonic psychic and social formations that attempt to keep in place a false opposition of polis and phusis, self and Other, resulting in the perpetuation of oppressive structures and processes. The primary methodological claim of the thesis is that prior psychoanalytic engagements with cultus scholarship have suffered from being either insufficiently thorough or diffused in attempts to be comparative. A more holistic and detailed approach allows us to ground a psychoanalytic interpretation in the realities of said culture, allowing us to critique Freud’s misreading of Dionysos regarding the Primal Father and the psychic transmission of the Primal Crime. This thesis posits that Dionysos needs to acknowledged as a projection of the Primal Father fantasy linked to a basic ambivalence about the necessity of boundaries in psychosocial life. Using research from the classics and psychoanalysis alongside Queer and post-colonial theory, as well as extensive fieldwork and primary source analysis, this thesis provides a grounded materialist critique of psychoanalysis’ complicity in reproducing a false dichotomy between polis and phusis, a dichotomy that furthers the projection onto marginalised groups whose othering is linked to a fear and desire of a return to phusis and denial of its constant presence in the psyche and polis. This re-reading of Dionysos challenges the defensive structures, which are organised around ideas of subjectification that posit that phusis must be severed from polis/ego and projected onto Dionysos and all groups that threaten the precariousness of these boundaries.

The nature of the Republican constitution has been much contested by scholars studying the history of the Roman Republic. In considering the problems of the late Republic, the nature of the constitution is an important question, for if we do not understand what the constitution was, how can we explain Rome’s transition from ‘Republic’ to ‘Empire’? Such a question is particularly pertinent when looking at events at Rome following the assassination of Caesar, as we try to understand why it was that the Republic, as we understand it as a polity without a sole ruler, was not restored. This thesis examines the Roman understanding of the constitution in the aftermath of Caesar’s death and argues that for the Romans the constitution was a contested entity, its proper nature debated and fought over, and that this contest led to conflict on the political stage, becoming a key factor in the failure to restore the Republic and the establishment of the Second Triumvirate. The thesis proposes a new methodology for the examination of the constitution, employing modern critical theories of discourse and the formation of knowledge to establish and analyse the Roman constitution as a discursive entity: interpreted, contested and established through discourse. I argue that the Roman knowledge of the proper nature of the constitution of the res publica had fractured by the time of Caesar’s death and that this fracturing led to multiple understandings of the constitution. In this thesis I describe the state of Rome in 44-43 B.C. to reveal these multiple understandings of the constitution, and undertake an analysis of the discourse of Cicero and Sallust after 44 B.C. in order to describe the way in which different understandings of the constitution were formulated and expressed. Through this examination this thesis shows that the expression and interrelation of these multiple understandings in Roman political discourse made arrival at a unified agreement on a common course of action all but impossible and that this combined with the volatile atmosphere at Rome after Caesar’s death played a major role in Rome’s slide towards civil war and the eventual establishment of a different political system.

In the last 30 years many changes have taken place within the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. These changes involve the tribe’s sovereignty and have greatly impacted the emic identity of the tribe. Previous identity research with the Cowlitz predates these changes and no longer accurately describe the Cowlitz. The question for this research was how have these changes affected the emic identity of the Cowlitz today as seen in their community and interactions? And how does their identity now compare with their identity in the times of pre-contact and initial contact with whites? This research uses Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory to assess and compare the emic identity of the contemporary and historical tribe in terms of sovereignty, identity, and cultural rejuvenation. When the structure, relationships, activities, and purposes of the tribe and groups within the contemporary tribe were analyzed, there was a striking resemblance to the community system described in early settler journals and histories of the Cowlitz. The research was cross-sectional, including ethnographic study, interviews of tribal members, document analysis, and historical analysis. In an attempt to allow the Cowlitz people to speak for themselves rather than project ideas onto the tribe, each section of the research first allows tribal members to voice their opinions and then relies on Cowlitz voices to confirm the analysis. The final dissertation was then submitted to the tribe for comment.

In Homer’s work Iliad, Achilles is harassed in the sleep by the ghost of his friend Patroclus who demands a burial by him to be able to find peace. From this we get an understanding of how important it was for the ancient Greeks that their dead were given a proper burial for the soul to enter Hades and be able to find peace. If the deceased body was not buried, the soul became restless that harassed and had the power to harm the living. Infants belong to the group of individuals that do not appear to have had any consistent way of how to deal with them after they died. Some of them did not receive anything even close to a burial that a deceased adult would have received. Why infants were handled differently in certain contexts and locations is a mystery and begs the question of whether they were not considered to be people when they died and what was required to be considered worthy of a funeral when being dead. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether infants ended up in Hades or not, with the ancient Greeks' view of death and dead bodies as a theoretical starting point. To fulfill the purpose, the following questions were asked; how were dead infants handled? Were they considered to be 'real' individuals? How do the dead infants relate to the notions of becoming restless dead? To be able to answer these questions, I researched material from three different categories of evidence. The discussion has been divided into archaeological, iconographical, and literary sources. There are many different answers to the questions of this thesis as the different sorts of source material indicate diverse answers and attitudes to infants. It all probably depends on the different geographical places, economy, and status in society. These different answers also generate different attitudes to infants and whether they in fact were a real person. But through this thesis I have displayed factors that can support my theory about infants in Hades and that they – in worst case scenario – could end up like restless dead.

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Cette thèse propose d’observer les ambiances sonores (i.e. sons, cris, paroles, bruits, moments de silence, etc.) et les musiques qui interviennent dans les cultes de la Mère des dieux, de Dionysos et de Déméter dans l’Athènes archaïque et classique, et d’en cerner les fonctions et significations. La composante sonore des cultes grecs, peu prise en considération dans les reconstructions historiques de la religion grecque ancienne, du moins jusqu’à récemment, joue un rôle pourtant fondamental tant dans la pratique rituelle que dans le récit. Ces deux formes d’expression de la religion – pratique rituelle et récit – sont d’ailleurs indissociables dans les témoignages anciens, de la même façon que les éléments imaginaires truffent les représentations inspirées de l’expérience rituelle. En examinant différents types de sources, parmi lesquelles les œuvres littéraires et les images sur vase demeurent les plus nombreuses et les plus instructives, et en abordant les différents aspects cultuels (pratique et récit / éléments imaginaires et réels) comme un ensemble cohérent, la phonosphère propre à chaque divinité se révèle de façon parfois frappante. Une telle démarche globalisante permet de mieux saisir l’expérience religieuse des Grecs, tout en favorisant une meilleure appréhension de certains phénomènes encore aujourd’hui sujets à controverses, par exemple le « ménadisme » et l’extatisme rituel. Car il ressort des témoignages que la musique, les sons et le silence, par leur pouvoir de communication notamment, remplissent des fonctions précises dans la pratique et le récit. Alors que certains sons et musiques visent à plaire à la divinité et, ainsi, à gagner sa faveur, par exemple, d’autres, investis de l’empreinte sonore de la divinité, exercent une emprise sur les mortels, emprise expérimentée dans le cadre de la pratique rituelle comme un moment de contact avec le divin. De cette emprise exercée par le moyen de la musique et des sons, peut résulter, dans certains cas, une guérison, une régulation des instabilités internes. Par ailleurs, la terminologie sonore dans la littérature se montre pratiquement toujours porteuse de sens, et permet de reconnaître l’univers évoqué et la ou les figure(s) divine(s) concernée(s). Répertorier les termes sonores propres à l’un ou l’autre culte facilite le repérage des associations établies entre certaines divinités, permettant ainsi des interprétations plus justes de certains passages de la littérature. D’un autre côté, la recherche sur les instruments de musique révèle des goûts et des tendances, possiblement attribuables dans certains cas à des changements significatifs survenus dans la sphère religieuse et politique de l’Athènes de la fin du Ve siècle. Par exemple, l’introduction progressive du tympanon dans l’univers dionysiaque à partir de la deuxième moitié du Ve siècle suggère une appropriation du culte de la Mère de dieux et de son instrument de prédilection par le peuple athénien. Cette observation, basée sur des témoignages de l’époque, contribue à illustrer la distinction que faisaient les Athéniens entre une religion considérée comme ancestrale, et une autre aux multiples formes et pour ainsi dire « additionnelle ». À cet égard, observer les éléments sonores dans les cultes mène non seulement à une meilleure connaissance desdits cultes, mais également à une meilleure compréhension de la société athénienne et des événements importants qui l’ont marquée. L’étude des sons, de leur place et de leurs fonctions dans la pratique et les récits contribue à l’approfondissement des connaissances concernant la religion grecque et les procédés de communication qu’elle met en place entre la sphère des mortels et celle des dieux, tout en favorisant une meilleure définition du milieu social et culturel dans lequel elle a évolué. / This thesis will consider the sound atmosphere (including cries, speech, noises and moments of silence) and music in the cults of the Great Mother, Dionysus and Demeter in Archaic and Classical Greece and their roles and meanings. Until recently, the audible component of Greek cults has rarely been considered by historical reconstructions. However, it played a fundamental role both in ritual practice and tales. These two expressions of religion – ritual practice and tales – are inextricably linked in ancient storytelling, just as representations inspired by the rituals are rife with imaginary elements. Examining different types of sources – of which the literary works and painted vases are the most numerous and enlightening – and considering the various cultural ingredients (tales and ritual practice, the imaginary and the real) as a coherent whole can provide insight into the phonosphere unique to each god in striking ways. This comprehensive approach leads to a better understanding of the religious experience of the Greeks, including certain phenomena that remain controversial today, such as maenadism and ecstatic ritual. The sources reveal that through their communicative power, music, sounds and silence filled specific functions in the ritual practices and tales. While some sounds and music were intended to please the god and hence gain favour, others bearing the god’s sonic signature held sway over mortals during rituals as a moment of personal contact with the divine. In certain cases, this aural sway could bring healing and a balancing of internal instability. Moreover, the sound vocabulary found in the literature almost invariably carries meaning that makes it possible to recognize the world and divine figures it describes. Cataloguing the sound vocabularies of individual cults/deities helps identify the relationships between certain gods. This in turn can clarify interpretations of certain passages in the literature. Similarly, research on musical instruments reveals tastes and trends, which could be attributed to the significant 5 changes in the religious and political spheres of Athens in the late 5th century BC. For example, the progressive introduction of the tympanum to the Dionysian world starting in the first half of the 5th century BC suggests that Athenians appropriated the cult of the Great Mother and the instrument most commonly associated with it. This observation, based on contemporary accounts, corroborates the distinction Athenians made between an ancestral religion and an “additional” multifaceted one. In that respect, investigating the sound atmosphere in these cults improves our understanding of not only the cults themselves, but also Athenian society as a whole and the milestone events that shaped it. Studying the sounds and their place and function in ritual practice and tales deepens our knowledge of Greek religion and the methods of communication it established between the realms of mortals and the gods. It also allows us to better characterize the social and cultural environments in which it developed

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