This dissertation explores the `sign' of visible face make-up and examines how women consume appearance in everyday life in contemporary Australia. Using a semiotic framework, it presents a novel new method for interpreting and gaining increased meaning into an everyday consumption phenomenon. The purpose of the study is to gain insights into why women wear make-up. It seeks to provide understanding of what this medium signifies to women and what the `sign' of make-up symbolises to the female individual. It explores how visible face make-up affects the way women consume appearance in everyday life, how they feel about themselves, and the role make-up plays in defining their own self-identity. The study utilises an interpretivist approach and uses a qualitative methodology in the form of phenomenology. The theoretical framework used to underpin this research is semiotics and this study examines the sign of make-up using two different semiotic perspectives previously not used together. The significance of this process is that by combining these perspectives a richer and more in-depth understanding is derived.

<p>Mainly focusing on the big picture regarding the research concerning the religious sphere in Bronze Age Scandinavia, the research field has been missing out on the smaller picture. The results have a tendency to produce a picture where the big landscape monuments, social structures and cosmology appear in the foreground. This essay is a comment to this phenomena and a methodological and terminological discussion regarding the way in which we as archaeologist’s works with questions about religion and rites. The main task though is to make an attempt in trying to identify the ritual performers and to answer the question whether it's possible or not to do that. This kind of work needs empirical studies with a theoretical background. The grave material can be the key to find these individuals since it's a context where the person’s belongings can be connected with the individual. The theoretical stance is that the Bronze Age research has been unable to identify these performers and that this in factcan be done. The etuis of belongings discovered for the first time in 1845 with the archaeological excavation of the Hvidegaard grave outside Copenhagen in Denmark, containing objects referred to as magical objects, can be one way to make these actors of rites come alive.The etuis of belongings and other grave material are presented in this work and a discussion about the graves material is made. The approach to study the bigger picture by studying the small empirical material is also made in this essay where a model of the ritual sphere is presented in the results with an attempt to show a none official cult existing side by side and in interaction with the official one.</p>

Originally presented as the author's Diplomarbeit--Universität Würzburg, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-121).

Samlingen är något som i förhållande till den tid den upptar av vår verksamhet får mycket av vår planeringstid plus att den ofta avbryter barnen i sin lek.       Då vi har sett att samlingen börjat ifrågasättas av en del pedagoger väcktes vårt intresse för att undersöka pedagogernas syn på samlingens syfte och form. Ett ytterligare syfte var att undersöka hur läroplanen används i planeringen inför samlingarna.      Vi har valt att använda en semistrukturerad intervjuform i vår kvalitativa undersökning och vi har intervjuat sammanlagt tio pedagoger från fyra förskolor i Mellansverige.       Resultatet av vår studie visar att två av de tio respondenterna inte har samling, eftersom de istället prioriterar den fria leken. Resterande respondenter anser att samlingen ger barnen en rolig stund och att den är gruppstärkande då barnen blir sedda och uppmärksammade av sina kamrater.   Att samlingen används för att skapa en gemenskap är något som även framkommer på flera ställen i litteraturen som vi använt oss av. Flera respondenter berättade att det även förekommer mattelekar/övningar i samlingen, trots att endast en respondent klart uttalade att man har samling för lärandets skull. Läroplanen är något som hela tiden finns i bakhuvudet, men den används inte direkt under planeringen. Två respondenter hade förskolans arbetsplan med vid planeringen. Vår slutsats är följande vad gäller pedagogernas huvudsakliga syfte med samlingen i förskolan; den är i första hand en ritual för att stärka gemenskapen och för att ge barnen en rolig stund, lärandet kommer i andra hand eftersom man är medveten om att det sker under hela barnets vistelsetid på förskolan och inte bara under samlingen.

Mainly focusing on the big picture regarding the research concerning the religious sphere in Bronze Age Scandinavia, the research field has been missing out on the smaller picture. The results have a tendency to produce a picture where the big landscape monuments, social structures and cosmology appear in the foreground. This essay is a comment to this phenomena and a methodological and terminological discussion regarding the way in which we as archaeologist’s works with questions about religion and rites. The main task though is to make an attempt in trying to identify the ritual performers and to answer the question whether it's possible or not to do that. This kind of work needs empirical studies with a theoretical background. The grave material can be the key to find these individuals since it's a context where the person’s belongings can be connected with the individual. The theoretical stance is that the Bronze Age research has been unable to identify these performers and that this in factcan be done. The etuis of belongings discovered for the first time in 1845 with the archaeological excavation of the Hvidegaard grave outside Copenhagen in Denmark, containing objects referred to as magical objects, can be one way to make these actors of rites come alive.The etuis of belongings and other grave material are presented in this work and a discussion about the graves material is made. The approach to study the bigger picture by studying the small empirical material is also made in this essay where a model of the ritual sphere is presented in the results with an attempt to show a none official cult existing side by side and in interaction with the official one.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität St. Gallen, 2003.

The aim of the present research was to show that collective rituals have the potential to promote not only ingroup favoritism but also outgroup discrimination. In two studies, I used a minimal group setup and had participants engage in a lab-created ritual over the course of seven days. Afterwards, participants came into the lab and performed the actions in their &lsquo;minimal&rsquo; group. In Study 1, I found that participants who performed the ad-hoc ritual distrusted outgroup members significantly more than did the control participants. Study 2 extended these findings by looking at ritual intensity as a factor of intergroup bias. Results showed, again, that participants in the two experimental conditions &ndash; elaborate and simple ritual &ndash; showed greater outgroup discrimination compared to the control, though the data showed no difference in biases between the two experimental conditions. I also found that tolerance to ambiguity moderated the effect of condition on intergroup bias.

The aim of the present research was to show that collective rituals have the potential to promote not only ingroup favoritism but also outgroup discrimination. In two studies, I used a minimal group setup and had participants engage in a lab-created ritual over the course of seven days. Afterwards, participants came into the lab and performed the actions in their &lsquo;minimal&rsquo; group. In Study 1, I found that participants who performed the ad-hoc ritual distrusted outgroup members significantly more than did the control participants. Study 2 extended these findings by looking at ritual intensity as a factor of intergroup bias. Results showed, again, that participants in the two experimental conditions &ndash; elaborate and simple ritual &ndash; showed greater outgroup discrimination compared to the control, though the data showed no difference in biases between the two experimental conditions. I also found that tolerance to ambiguity moderated the effect of condition on intergroup bias.

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