Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1964. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 28-30).

This dissertation contributes an interpretation of the ancestral altar tradition among Vietnamese American first and second generation practitioners. It traces the contours of the shifting transformations in domestic religious practice, specifically the transnational and diasporic dimensions in people's lives. I address how and toward what ends the "spiritual" is accessed, experienced and/or transformed in the materiality of everyday life, in the context of a complex relationship to a diasporic homeland and an emerging second generation. The research was conducted in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio (Texas), Carthage (Missouri), Sài Gòn (Viet Nam) and Pulau Galang (Indonesia). I make two main assertions. The first is that domestic religious practices matter in exploring issues of cultural citizenship and belonging. As a collection of things, I explain how altar assemblages are constituted through the purposeful and chance encounters of the practitioner(s), which is a way to talk about the global (such as transnational mobilities or the discourses about diasporic citizenship) through the intimately local. My second claim is that ideas of cultural citizenship can intersect with religious motivations and practices, and that they happen (are performed, imagined and circulated) transnationally, or more precisely, translocatively. I document how practitioners' and groups of practitioners' struggle to combat the (current Vietnamese) state's interventions in re-narrating the circumstances of their exile and also the relative invisibility they face as historical subjects in the United States. By carefully examining ancestral altars as a constitution of "things" and as situated "spaces," I address various facets of what they are and how they work -- as ways to express a familial or diasporic imaginary; or as assemblages of things that are both intimately meaningful and private, yet situated at the intersections of geopolitical engagements and cultural politics. / text

Univ., Diss. u.d.T.: Diederichs-Gottschalk, Dietrich: Die protestantischen Schriftaltäre des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts in Nordwestdeutschland in der Grafschaft Ostfriesland und im Harlingerland, im Erzstift und in der Stadt Bremen sowie den stadtbremischen Territorien, mit je einem Exkurs in die Grafschaft Oldenburg und in das Fürstentum Lüneburg--Göttingen, 2004.

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-62).

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-62).

Este estudo trata-se de uma etnografia sobre formas sagradas. O nosso campo empírico foi a cidade de Juazeiro do Norte, município situado no sul do Ceará, um dos maiores centros de romaria popular do Brasil, enfocando em particular a Ladeira do Horto, caminho velho que conduz à estátua do Padre Cícero. A partir de uma cooperação teórica entre os campos da etnomusicologia e da antropologia visual, realizamos uma reflexão sobre processos não narrativos de enunciação e produção de poder sagrado. A provocação empírica que move esta discussão foi identificada durante a nossa pesquisa de mestrado, concluída no ano de 2002, questão inicialmente circunscrita ao âmbito da significação musical. Percebemos, naquela época, que algumas músicas do repertório religioso tradicional, verdadeiros tesouros para os devotos mais idosos, eram rechaçadas pelos católicos modernos, sendo seu canto considerado um chamariz de infortúnios, prenúncio de má sorte. Retomada nesta pesquisa de doutorado, a velha provocação mostrou uma envergadura infinitamente maior, transcendendo o domínio sonoro e abrangendo todo um conjunto de expressividades relacionadas a uma prática devocional voltada para o cultivo da penitência como principal preceito religioso na economia de salvação das almas. Esta pesquisa procura mostrar como foi possível a esses devotos idosos preservarem a sua identidade penitencial sem prejuízo do sentimento de unidade religiosa com a Igreja Católica, cuja orientação doutrinária atual constrange as práticas devocionais centradas no exercício da penitência e da mortificação do corpo. Alvitramos a existência de uma doutrina penitencial apócrifa que apesar de não ser propalada nos discursos sobre religião está consignada no repertório musical dos antigos benditos, nos altares domésticos e na corporeidade das velhas beatas, instâncias que elaboram um espaço estético de plausibilidade capaz de legitimar o valor sagrado da penitência e de preservar nos devotos a convicção sobre obediência e unidade católica. / This study is an ethnography regarding sacred forms. Our empirical field was the city of Juazeiro do Norte, which is located in the south of Ceará, one of the biggest centers of popular pilgrimage in Brazil, emphasizing the old path that leads to the statue of Padre Cícero called Ladeira do Horto. By means of a theoretical cooperation between the fields of ethnomusicology and visual anthropology, we carried out a reflection on non-narrative processes of enunciation and production of sacred power. The empirical provocation that guides this discussion was identified during our previous research for the masters degree back in 2002. At that time, the point of the study was musical significance, and we realized that some songs of the traditional religious repertoire, considered to be real treasures for the older devotees, were refused by the modern catholics, since they were thought to attract bad things. The old provocation resumed on this doctoral research has shown a wider scope, transcending the sound domain and incorporating now a number of means of expression related to a devotional practice that considers penitence as the main religious rule on the economy of salvation of the souls. This research aims to show how it was possible for these old devotees to preserve their penitential identity without any loss as to the feeling of religious unity with the Catholic Church, whose doctrinaire orientation nowadays reproves the devotional practices based on penitence and mortification of the body. We suggest the existence of an apocryphal penitential doctrine that, in spite of not being mentioned on religious speeches, is present on the musical repertoire of the old benditos, as well as in the home altars and on the corporeal image of the old beatas, instances that create an aesthetic space of plausibility that is able to legitimate the sacred value of penitence and preserve on the devotees the conviction regarding obedience and catholic unity.

Habilitation - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München.

Este estudo trata-se de uma etnografia sobre formas sagradas. O nosso campo empírico foi a cidade de Juazeiro do Norte, município situado no sul do Ceará, um dos maiores centros de romaria popular do Brasil, enfocando em particular a Ladeira do Horto, caminho velho que conduz à estátua do Padre Cícero. A partir de uma cooperação teórica entre os campos da etnomusicologia e da antropologia visual, realizamos uma reflexão sobre processos não narrativos de enunciação e produção de poder sagrado. A provocação empírica que move esta discussão foi identificada durante a nossa pesquisa de mestrado, concluída no ano de 2002, questão inicialmente circunscrita ao âmbito da significação musical. Percebemos, naquela época, que algumas músicas do repertório religioso tradicional, verdadeiros tesouros para os devotos mais idosos, eram rechaçadas pelos católicos modernos, sendo seu canto considerado um chamariz de infortúnios, prenúncio de má sorte. Retomada nesta pesquisa de doutorado, a velha provocação mostrou uma envergadura infinitamente maior, transcendendo o domínio sonoro e abrangendo todo um conjunto de expressividades relacionadas a uma prática devocional voltada para o cultivo da penitência como principal preceito religioso na economia de salvação das almas. Esta pesquisa procura mostrar como foi possível a esses devotos idosos preservarem a sua identidade penitencial sem prejuízo do sentimento de unidade religiosa com a Igreja Católica, cuja orientação doutrinária atual constrange as práticas devocionais centradas no exercício da penitência e da mortificação do corpo. Alvitramos a existência de uma doutrina penitencial apócrifa que apesar de não ser propalada nos discursos sobre religião está consignada no repertório musical dos antigos benditos, nos altares domésticos e na corporeidade das velhas beatas, instâncias que elaboram um espaço estético de plausibilidade capaz de legitimar o valor sagrado da penitência e de preservar nos devotos a convicção sobre obediência e unidade católica. / This study is an ethnography regarding sacred forms. Our empirical field was the city of Juazeiro do Norte, which is located in the south of Ceará, one of the biggest centers of popular pilgrimage in Brazil, emphasizing the old path that leads to the statue of Padre Cícero called Ladeira do Horto. By means of a theoretical cooperation between the fields of ethnomusicology and visual anthropology, we carried out a reflection on non-narrative processes of enunciation and production of sacred power. The empirical provocation that guides this discussion was identified during our previous research for the masters degree back in 2002. At that time, the point of the study was musical significance, and we realized that some songs of the traditional religious repertoire, considered to be real treasures for the older devotees, were refused by the modern catholics, since they were thought to attract bad things. The old provocation resumed on this doctoral research has shown a wider scope, transcending the sound domain and incorporating now a number of means of expression related to a devotional practice that considers penitence as the main religious rule on the economy of salvation of the souls. This research aims to show how it was possible for these old devotees to preserve their penitential identity without any loss as to the feeling of religious unity with the Catholic Church, whose doctrinaire orientation nowadays reproves the devotional practices based on penitence and mortification of the body. We suggest the existence of an apocryphal penitential doctrine that, in spite of not being mentioned on religious speeches, is present on the musical repertoire of the old benditos, as well as in the home altars and on the corporeal image of the old beatas, instances that create an aesthetic space of plausibility that is able to legitimate the sacred value of penitence and preserve on the devotees the conviction regarding obedience and catholic unity.

During Tina Modotti's time in Mexico in the 1920s, much of her photography and political activities focused on and fought for the rights of those who had been previously overlooked and marginalized, namely the indigenous people of Mexico. Many government officials, artists and intellectuals at the time believed that it was through the indigenous culture that Mexico could redeem itself and create its own national identity. Indigenismo, the philosophy that supported this claim, was of interest to Modotti and was a recurring theme throughout her photography. Following the Mexican Revolution of 1910, indigenismo appeared to be the solution to establishing this new identity that was authentically Mexican and distinct from the perceived corruption of Europe and North America. However, the principles of this theory were paradoxical in that proponents supported incorporating indigenous elements into Mexican society, but they also supposed that the only way to recreate the country was by dismissing and destroying these native cultures. Modotti was not as interested in advocating a rebuilding of Mexico as she was in promoting social equality among all races and groups of people in the country, similar to what international Marxism endorsed. Indigenismo to Modotti was more of a way to give voice to the marginalized indigenous people who had been forgotten politically, educationally and artistically for centuries. Through three phases of her photographic career in Mexico—her early phase (which included the Idols Behind Altars project), Mexican Folkways, and her work done in Tehuantepec-we can see how Modotti progressed as an indigenista artist. Although her audience varied in each of these three phases, Modotti's commitment to, and portrayal of, Mexico's indigenous culture was a central unifying theme in her work. This study argues that the photographs of Tina Modotti illustrate her concept of indigenismo by celebrating what she perceived as strong, egalitarian indigenous communities that appealed to her Marxist political philosophy. Modotti sought to counter previous distorted or exaggerated misconceptions of indigenous culture, and she tried to compensate for this lack of authenticity within the Mexican national identity and Mexican art through her photography.

This dissertation on "Archaeology and the Israelite Cult" covers a period of ca. I 000 years, dating from the time of the Hebrew patriarchs ca.l950 B.C.E. to the end of the monarchy which is given as ca. 950 B.C.E. The archaeological findings are related to five significant and major excavation sites in Palestine which have been found to embrace the time span under consideration and point in many ways to the practice of the Israelite or Canaanite cult. These five sites are:- a) The Bull Site b) Kuntillet Ajrud c) The Fortress- Sanctuary at Arad d) Shechem e) Megiddo The writings of the Israelite cult are scant and commence mainly with the patriarchs. The time of Abraham and his recognition of a monolatrous god. The beginning of the complex Y ahwistic cult introduced by Moses in the Sinai Desert, following Israelite escape from Egypt. The Israelite cultic practices, which are now considered to be syncrestic, are discussed where they relate to biblical texts and archaeological findings of confirmation. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Biblical Studies)