Nel Risorgimento alla definizione del concetto di identità nazionale concorse una serie di fattori legati alla sfera culturale: dalle letture che ispirarono i patrioti, agli scritti che essi stessi diedero alle stampe, ai simboli ed ai miti che entrarono a fare parte del loro linguaggio, fino alla cultura teatrale e alla teatralità, e quindi al momento festivo e rituale, visti come motivo di aggregazione, partecipazione e trasmissione di valori civili fondanti. Nel presente lavoro si indagano le connessioni tra la ritualità cittadina ed il teatro e gli spiriti libertari ed i valori civili propri del periodo risorgimentale in area milanese, dal 1815 della Restaurazione al 1859 dell’entrata degli alleati in Milano. / In the Risorgimento some cultural factors contributed to the definition of the idea of national identity: readings that inspired patriots, writings they printed, symbols and myths that became part of their language, theatrical culture and theatricality and celebrations and rituals, considered like reason of aggregation, participation and transmission of civil virtues. This thesis examines relationships between rituals, theatre and libertarian feelings and civil values of the Risorgimento, in Milan, from 1815 to 1859.

In this study an ecosystemic approach to self-hypnosis was utilised as a tool to explore and describe the healing of sport injuries. Four injured Subjects, from four different sporting activities participated in the study. Self-hypnosis/hypnosis was used as a linguistic means to perturb the problem-defining ideas within which the sport injury was embedded. Problem dis-solution involved a process of reframing each Subject's current reality through dialogue, and a new reality for each respective Subject was co-constructed through consequent linguistic differentiation. The hypnotist, participating in the linguistic domain as an equal participant, looked for intended meanings in each respective conversational exchange with the athletes, and synthesised information creatively. This process and the thinking behind each case study is described in detail in this dissertation. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

The Haida language, Xaad Kil is dangerously close to extinction and in need of heroic action. The purpose of this study is to find out what ancient traditions and beliefs we could incorporate into our language revitalization efforts. Drawing on archival literature and community knowledge, I found almost 100 traditional ways to support Xaad Kil revitalization. There are four main chapters: Haida foods, Haida medicines, Haida rituals and ceremonies and Haida supernatural beings that could contribute to Xaad Kil revitalization. The food chapter features two-dozen traditional foods from salmon to berries that support a healthy lifestyle for Haida language speakers and that could strengthen our connections to the supernatural world. The Haida medicine chapter features two dozen traditional medicines from single-delight to salt water that could heal, strengthen and purify the Haida language learner. The ritual and ceremony chapter features over two-dozen rituals from devil’s club rituals to labret piercing ceremonies that could strengthen Haidas and our language learning. The supernatural being chapter features twenty-three supernatural beings including Greatest Crab and Lady Luck that could bring a language learner wealth, knowledge, luck and strength. This study suggests that a Xaad kil learner and the Xaad kil language need to be pure, protected, connected, lucky, strong, healthy, respected, loved and wise. The path to these qualities is within the traditions and beliefs featured in this research. This study is significant because it shows that the language revitalization answers are within and all around us. / Graduate / 0290 / 0326 / lucybell@uvic.ca

Thesis (DTh)--University of Stellenbosch, 1995. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A number of theories aimed at more effective ways of religious education have seen the light in recent years. They are all characterized by a holistic approach which emphasises the fact that we should try to utilise more than just the cognitive and verbal potential of man. This study does not merely accept this view but would also like to go further and look for practical means to implement these ideas. The central hypothesis of the study is that symbols and rituals are eminently suitable instruments if one opts for a holistic approach towards religious education. Various shifts which have recently occurred in modern society are highlighted in the study. These include a new outlook on life, new behavioural patterns, new ways of communication and new theories on communication. The complexity of our society is described because it has a major influence on the functioning of symbols and rituals. Secondly, symbols and rituals are defined and their functioning is described. Issues like the interplay between symbol and ritual and society, the way in which order and identity are given to society by symbols and rituals, the way in which symbols and rituals communicate without the use of a multitude of words, the pastoral function that symbols and rituals can fulfil and the gradual disappearance of symbols and rituals from our society are discussed. Attention is also paid to the concepts "liminality" and "commullitas", as described by the anthropologist Victor Turner. These two concepts are central to the understanding of the way in which rituals function. Thirdly, symbols and rituals are viewed from a Biblical and theological angle. The study shows that man was created as a symbol, but also underlines the importance of seeing man's body and soul as a unity. This has special implications for the manner in which we ritualize. It is also pointed out that symbols and rituals have played a major role in worship since the earliest times. The important role which kerugmatic and cultic acts, as well as the sacraments have played and can still play in the life of a believer is also described. Fourthly, the study concludes that symbols and rituals can indeed play a vital role in the process of religious education and the deepening and expansion of faith. The argument is supported in a deductive manner by the insights of people like H. Westerhoff, P. Babin, C.R. Foster, S. McLean and others. It is stressed that symbols and rituals should be used in a nuanced manner. Finally a number of proposals are made as to how these principles could be implemented in practice, together with some suggestions for further study. We believe that this should stimulate both the utilisation of symbols and rituals and further discussion and research in this regard. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Daar het die afgelope aantal jare 'n hele aantal teoriee rakende die effektiewe oordrag van geloofsinhoude die lig gesien. Die teoriee word feitlik deurgaans gekenmerk deur 'n holistiese benadering wat beklemtoon dat meer as die kognitiewe en verbale potensiaal van die mens benut behoort te word. Hierdie studie sluit daarby aan, maar soek verder na praktiese instrumente vir geloofsvorming wat aan hierdie vereiste sal voldoen. Die sentrale hipotese van die studie is dat simbole en rituele by uitnemendheid geskik is om geloofsinhoude op 'n holistiese wyse oor te dra en so mee te werk aan 'n proses van geloofsvorming. Daar word in die studie gewys op skuiwe wat die afgelope aantal jare binne die moderne samelewing plaasgevind het en die mens se gedrag, lewens- en wereldbeskouing, asook kommunikasie en teoriee ten opsigte van kommunikasie daadwerklik beinvloed het. Die kompleksiteit van die samelewing word uitgelig omdat dit sowel positiewe as negatiewe implikasies vir die funksionering van simbole en rituele het. Tweedens word simbole en rituele gedefinieer en die funksionering daarvan beskryf Sake soos die wisselwerking tussen simbole en ritue1e en die gemeenskap, die wyse waarop simbole en rituele orde en identiteit aan die gemeenskap gee, die wyse waarop simbole en rituele sonder 'n omhaal van woorde kommunikeer, die pastorale funksies wat deur simbole en ritue1e vervul kan word en die wyse waarop simbole en rituele algaande uit die samelewing verdwyn het, word bespreek. Aandag word ook aan die begrippe "liminaliteit" en "communitas" gegee. Daar word veral aangesluit by die werk van die antropoloog Victor Turner. Hierdie twee begrippe word as wesenlik vir die verstaan van die funksionering van rituele beskou. Derdens word simbole en rituele deur 'n teologiese en Bybelse bril beskou. Ten aanvang word daarop gewys dat daar aan die mens die kwaliteit gegee is om as lewende simbool te funksioneer. Vervolgens word aangetoon hoe be1angrik dit is om die liggaamlikheid van die mens ernstig op te neem en daarna hoedat simbole en rituele vanaf die Bybelse tye 'n sentrale rol gespeel het in die aanbiddingswereld van gelowiges. Die besondere rol wat kerugmatiese en kultiese handelinge, asook die sakramente, in die geloofslewe van mense gespeel het en steeds speel, word bespreek. Vierdens word die gevolgtrekking gemaak dat simbole en rituele inderdaad 'n belangrike rol kan speel in die proses van geloofsvorming. Die argument word verder op deduktiewe wyse ondersteun deur insigte van persone soos J.H. Westerhoff, P. Babin, R. Osmer, C.R. Foster, S. McLean e.a. Daar word veral gewys op die belangrikheid van 'n genuanseerde gebruik van simbole en rituele. Ten slotte word enkele bedieningsvoorstelle en aanbevelings vir verdere navorsing gemaak wat as stimulering van die bedieningspraktyk behoort te dien.

This thesis was planned as a cross-case study of three docent-led museum tours, examined through the lens of liminality. The liminal, as identified by anthropologist Victor Turner, is an ambiguous and transitional state that is “betwixt and between” normative structures. When applied to the art museum, I argue that the liminal is a zone of negotiation that can assist in transformation and personal meaning making through a phenomenon of thought. This study centers on the following questions: How can liminal theory, as applied to museum education, illuminate the relationships between gallery teachers, visitors, and objects? And, in what ways does liminality allow for visitors’ personal meaning making to occur? These questions were answered through the planned observation of three docent-led museum tours at the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin. Video and audio recordings, as well as observational field notes, occurred in one museum gallery and focused on one artwork, Cildo Meireles’ Missão/Missões (How to Build Cathedrals). Data was collected from narrative transcripts of the aforementioned video and audio recordings, exit interviews with docents, observational field notes taken during each tour, and observations and notes made while analyzing the video and audio footage. Two of these three tours fit within the parameters set by the researcher and, therefore, one tour was eliminated from the research findings. Content analysis is utilized in this study. This type of data analysis placed information into three categories modeled after Arnold van Gennep’s rites de passage: separation, the liminal, and aggregation. Four subcategories were subsequently discovered during this analysis: observation, connection, realization, and transformation. Conclusions determined after the analysis of this data revealed fluidity between these stages. Additionally, liminal theory illuminated the relationships between visitors, objects, and museum educators in a way that stressed that the negotiation of the artwork, meaning making, and the process of transformation are part of a collaborative journey, and that the spaces “betwixt and between” are valuable for the advancement of museum education. / text

Economic retrenchment, social shifts, and technological changes endanger journalism's democratic role. Journalism education faces parallel threats. I review the state of journalism and education, linking the crisis to society's loss of story, framed philosophically by the Dewey-critical theory split over journalism and power. I explore the potential for renewing journalism and education with Carey's ritual model and Postman's restoration of storytelling. I then summarize existing major academic programs and suggest a new interdisciplinary curriculum for environmental journalism, a specialty well suited to experimental, democracy-centered education. The curriculum uses as pedagogy active and conversational learning and reflection. A graduate introductory course is detailed, followed by additional suggested classes that could form the basis of a graduate certificate program or, with further expansion, a graduate degree concentration.

La ville préhispanique de Cantona, située dans la vallée d’Oriental dans l’état de Puebla au Mexique, atteignit sa première apogée culturelle entre 150 av. J.C. et 600/650 A.D. Durant cette période, des complexes cérémoniaux comprenant des groupes de pyramides-temples et des terrains de jeu de balle furent construits. Ces installations servirent au déroulement de nombreux rites au cours desquels les victimes de sacrifices étaient décapitées, démembrées, décharnées, écorchées, bouillies, brûlées et, dans certains cas, consommées. D’autres traitements du corps humain comportent l’inhumation d’individus en position assise et repliés sur eux-mêmes. Pour mieux comprendre le traitement mortuaire rituel des corps humains à Cantona, les découvertes faites sur place sont comparées aux données datant de la même époque obtenues dans trois régions voisines : la vallée de Mexico, Puebla-Tlaxcala et le golfe du Mexique. A partir de ces renseignements, on peut en déduire que la majorité des découvertes faites à Cantona sont les restes des dépouilles et offrandes provenant de rites destinés à la communication avec les dieux et à l’obtention de la fertilité, tandis que les dépouilles des individus en position assise appartiennent à des prêtres ou à des personnages religieux. / The prehispanic city of Cantona, located in the Valley of Oriental in the state of Puebla, Mexico, reached its first cultural apogee between 150 B.C. - 600/650 A.D. During this time, ceremonial complexes such as Temple Pyramid Groups and ballcourts were constructed. These served as the location for a number of rituals involving the beheading, dismemberment, defleshing, flaying, boiling, burning, and in some cases, the consumption of sacrifice victims. Other human body treatment included the burial of individuals in flexed seated positions. To better understand the ritual mortuary treatment of human bodies at Cantona, the finds are compared with data from three neighboring areas: the Valley of Mexico, Puebla-Tlaxcala, and the Gulf of Mexico. From this information, it can be deduced that most of discoveries at Cantona are the remains of rites dedicated to deity communication and fertility while those of individuals in flexed, seated positions belong to religious actors. / La ciudad prehispánica de Cantona, ubicada en el valle de Oriental dentro del estado de Puebla, Mexico, tuvo su primer apogeo cultural entre 150 a.ne. y 600/650 d.n.e. Durante ese periodo, se edificaron gran número de complejos ceremoniales tal como Grupos de Templo Pirámide y canchas de juego de pelota. Estas construcciones sirvieron como sitios rituales en donde se llevaron a cabo gran número de ritos, los cuales, en parte, consistían en decapitar, desmembrar, descarnar, desollar, hervir, quemar, y, en algunos casos, comer a las víctimas humanas de los sacrificios. En otros casos, los cuerpos humanos fueron encontrados en posición flexionada y sentada. Para entender mejor el tratamiento ritual de cuerpos humanos en Cantona, estos descubrimientos fueron comparados con información obtenida de tres regiones cercanas: el Valle de México, Puebla-Tlaxcala y la Costa del Golfo. Esto permitió deducir que la mayoría de los hallazgos en Cantona representan los restos de ritos dedicados a la comunicación con divinidades y a la fertilidad, mientras que los individuos encontrados en posición flexionada y sentada corresponden a sacerdotes o actores rituales difuntos.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise traite de quatre pièces de l’auteur français Bernard-Marie Koltès. Résolument axé sur l’étude du texte écrit, il vise dans un premier temps l’analyse d’un ensemble de désajustements et d’une culture de l’équivoque dans le traitement du lieu, du temps et de l’identité. Le premier but de ces analyses est l’approfondissement de certaines avenues déjà investies par la critique (marginalité des lieux et des personnages, présence constante de la violence et de la mort, etc.), dans la recherche d’une signification globale à un ensemble de pratiques textuelles liées à la notion de limite ou de frontière. Opérant un changement de perspective, la seconde partie de l’étude s’attarde à la violence ainsi qu’aux modalités et implications de sa mise en texte dans une étude croisée de l’acte créateur et de la pratique de lecture. À partir de la théorie du sacrifice élaborée par René Girard dans La violence et le sacré, et faisant dialoguer certains textes importants d’auteurs divers (Aristote, Nietzsche, Artaud, Foucault, Derrida et Adorno), l’analyse vise à inscrire la littérarité du texte koltésien dans une entreprise plus vaste ayant à voir avec la violence, sa régulation et sa diffusion. Au carrefour des études théâtrales, de la littérature et de la philosophie, cette réflexion cherche à concevoir le théâtre de Koltès (particulièrement Roberto Zucco) comme un sacrifice rituel, afin de mieux en comprendre le rapport au réel et certaines de ses particularités du point de vue du mécanisme cathartique. / This M.A. thesis analyzes four plays by the French author Bernard-Marie Koltès. Resolutely focused on the study of written text, it begins by analyzing several disarrangements and a culture of ambiguity in the treatment of place, time and identity. The first goal of this interrogation is the deepening of some avenues already detected by the critique (marginality of places and characters, the constant presence of violence and death, etc.) in the search for a global meaning to a set of textual practices related to the notion of limit or boundary. Operating a change of perspective, the second part of the thesis focuses on violence and on the terms and consequences of its textualisation, in a simultaneous study of the creative act and of the practice of reading. Based on the theory of the sacrifice as developed by René Girard in La violence et le sacré, and nourished by the crossing of some important texts by various thinkers (Aristotle, Nietzsche, Artaud, Foucault, Derrida, Adorno, etc.), the analysis seeks the inscription of Koltesian text’s literariness in a broader enterprise having to do with violence, its regulation and its dissemination. At the intersection of theater studies, literature and philosophy, this study is an attempt to understand Koltès’ drama (especially Roberto Zucco) as a ritual sacrifice in order to obtain a better comprehension of its relationship to reality and some of its characteristics as for the cathartic mechanism.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Dans le contexte de l’expression moderne de la religiosité, l’étude explore comment les méthodes de l’Ashtanga yoga produisent l’expérience de la transformation chez les individus qui les pratiquent et qui atteint, dans une certaine mesure, leur entourage. Ethnographiquement, le mémoire se concentre sur le rituel principal de l’Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (AVY), les séances de style Mysore, telle qu’exercé par la communauté de pratiquants de la Sattva Yoga Shala à Montréal. En tant que performance, le rituel met en branle le potentiel de transformation. La pratique de ce yoga implique une discipline et un apprentissage draconien sur une longue échelle temporelle qui amènent, au fur et à mesure, des changements se répercutant dans/et influençant le vécu quotidien des adeptes. Le mémoire résume d’abord les bases littéraires du yoga, et le contexte historique de l’avènement de l’AVY ainsi que celui de sa venue à Montréal. Pour solidifier l’analyse, le travail poursuit par l’idéologie et la praxis du groupe d’étude. Le coeur de l’analyse suit. Nous examinons premièrement les modalités potentielles à la transformation du soi, c’est-à-dire les éléments rituels généraux et ceux spécifiques à l’AVY; puis, nous nous penchons sur ce que ces modalités développent, permettent, et changent chez les répondants, donc leurs impacts. Dans cette recherche, l’Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga est à la fois une réalité empirique et une catégorie analytique servant à approfondir les connaissances anthropologiques sur le phénomène de la transformation personnelle selon le cadre expérientiel de la religiosité moderne. / Within the context of the modern expression of religiosity, this study explores how the methods of Ashtanga yoga is produce the experience of transformation for the individual who practices them, and to a certain extent, his or her surroundings. Ethnographically, the thesis concentrates on the main ritual of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (AVY), Mysore style sessions, as practiced by the community of practitioners at Sattva Yoga Shala in Montreal. Through its execution, the ritual sets into motion the potential for transformation. The practice of this yoga involves long-term discipline and a draconian learning process whose gradual changes influence and/or carry over into the daily experience of devotees. The thesis first summarizes the textual foundations of yoga, and the historical context of both the rise of AVY, as well as its arrival in Montreal. To solidify the analysis, the work continues with the ideology and praxis of the study group. The heart of the analysis follows. In the analysis, I first examine potential modalities of self-transformation; that is to say, general elements of ritual and those specific to AVY. I go on to examine their impact, that is, what these modalities develop, allow and change for practitioners. In this research, Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is simultaneously an empirical reality and an analytical category serving to deepen the anthropological knowledge of the phenomenon of personal transformation according to the experiential framework of modern religiosity.