Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements of the Honours Degree in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1997. / Izinhloso zalolu cwaningo ukulekelela isizwe sakithi singalahlekelwa ubuntu nobuzwe baso. Ukukhuthaza isizukulwane esisha ukuba sazi, kumbe sizimbandakanye namasiko esintu. Lolu cwaningo luzoqwashisa abantu abaningi asebalahla amadlozi akubo Ucwaningo luzophawula ngokungahlonipheki nokungagcineki kwedlozi ngernfanelo. Ucwaningo luhlose ukuvimbela isejwayezi esibi sokuthatha imikhuba noma amasiko ezinye izizwe. awesintu abeseshabalala unomphela. Kulolu cwaningo kuzothintwa imicimbi ethile. nezenzeko zokuthetha idlozi ngokukhuluma noma ngokwenza ungakhulumanga. Ucwaningo luhlose ukuveza ubuciko bomlomo isintu esinabo kwizizukulwane ngezizukulwane. Ucwaningo luzoqhakambisa ukuphathwa nokukhuseleka kwethu ngabakwelingafelwa. nkonyane. Kuyisiko elibalulekile kithina maZulu ukuthethwa kwedlozi. Amadlozi siyawakhumbula siwahloniphe ngoba aphathelene nabaphansi. Kufanele kucace, kumbe kubesobala ukuthi sikhuluma nabakithi asebekwelingafelwa nkonyane . Umlando wempilo uzothinta uzalo lonkana, kuze kufike kokhulukhulwane. Ukukhula, ukuziphatha. nempilo yentombazane nomfana ekhaya kuxhomekeke ezinyanyeni zekhaya kusukela ebunganeni baze bayokwenda, noma bendelwe. Isigaba nesinyathelo abasithathayo ekukhuleni kwabo sibikwa emadlozini ngoba kuyiwona abasingethe kulo lonke uchungechunge lwezigaba abadlula kuzona.

archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Bebel R. Ibarra Asencios

No description available.

During prehispanic times (1250 B.P. - 1521 A.D), Mesoamerica was the most powerful nation in the entire America continent. One of the most important ethnic groups was the Zapotecs located in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Their history started in those days and it has not ended. The ancient Zapotec gave human femora from the dead special treatments. This thesis seeks to understand the cultural meaning of human femora within ancient Zapotec belief systems, especially the cultural meaning when special treatment of femora was involved in mortuary rituals and practices long after the death of the individual. To understand when this practice began, who did it, why they did it, and what was the significance of human femora for the Zapotecs, it was necessary to know where those femora came from, from ancestors or captives. This research included bioanthropological methodologies considering sex, age and minimum number of individuals, to determine if this practice had a pattern, and also observations on whether human femora had cultural and natural taphonomic modifications. The data were collected from publications from Lambityeco, Mitla, Monte Albán and San Miguel Albarradas, Oaxaca. The results demonstrated that ancient Zapotecs used ancestors' remains as part of their rituals, particularly the femur. Therefore we still lack any bioanthropological evidence for Zapotecs taking human captives.

Master of Science / Genetics Interdepartmental Program - Agronomy / Allan K. Fritz / Wheat is increasing in importance as the global population rises; therefore, abiotic stresses adversely affecting wheat yield, such as heat stress, are of growing concern. Accessions of Aegilops speltoides, a relative of the ancestral donor of the B genome of hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum), have been determined to be highly heat tolerant. Six Ae. speltoides accessions were used as male donors in crosses with six hexaploid wheat lines, in all combinations, to obtain F1 amphiploid seed (ABDS = 28 chromosomes). The F1 seedlings were treated with a colchicine solution to achieve chromosome doubling (AABBDDSS = 56 chromosome doubled amphiploids) and grown out to maturity. S1 seed was collected for optimal or heat treatment after anthesis and SPAD readings were taken daily during treatment until maturity. In addition to physiological measurements, leaf tissue samples were collected from S1 plants and their respective parents for marker sequence analysis. Certain doubled amphiploids survived longer in heat treatment than their wheat parents with similar SPAD readings, but had a longer maturation time, similar to their Ae. speltoides parents. S2 seed was collected from 20 S1 plants, including one plant from the heat treatment. This heat screen demonstrates variation among the amphiploids, the genetic diversity within pedigree warrants further investigation into the viability and heat stress tolerance of the S2 seeds obtained from this experiment.

Thesis (M.A. (Folklore)) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / The mini-dissertation investigated the ways in which one qualifies as a traditional healer in Tshivenda. The study has discovered that a person cannot choose to become a traditional healer, he or she is chosen by the ancestors into this profession and they make their wishes known to the person concerned through continuous illness and dreams. Nowadays, there is an increased number of traditional healers in the community. It seems as if the community is confused as to whether all these healers have gone through the proper ways of becoming a traditional healer in Tshivenḓa or they are largely interested in the economic gain.

Relationships and connections with our traditional, spiritual, cultural practices, and the physical landscapes of our traditional territories are inherent to our Kwagu’ł being. This thesis research explores how developing relationships with landscapes contributes to cultural identity. My research project focuses on using digital video to document an experiential journey of Kwagu’ł community members as they experience a Kwagu’ł origin site in their traditional territories of T’sax̱is (Fort Rupert, BC), a small remote village on northern Vancouver Island. I specifically examine how being in a particular place might influence their identification processes as they reflect on Kwagu’ł practices, values and beliefs. According to our Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw nino’gad (knowledgeable ones), wellness balances and integrates the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual elements of our being. The disruption of these fundamental elements of wellness is a legacy of Indigenous people’s encounter with colonialism. These factors ultimately affect our behaviour, and therefore, our identity. In this film, titled “Identity Through A Journey With Our Ancestors”, I explore: 1) how an experiential journey to Kwagu’ł origin sites contributes to a Kwagu’ł person’s perception of who they are and where they come from; 2) how Kwagu’ł people develop a coevalness with their ancestors, their ancestral ontological practices, teachings and ideologies; and ask 3) how Kwagu’ł people should embody this knowledge so that it creates meaningful connections to Kwagu’ł identity in light of socioeconomic and cultural changes of our contemporary environment? This paper accompanies the film and elaborates on the deeper understanding of cultural identification practices of aboriginal people that stems from a discussion of origin sites and their meanings. K’waxalikala (tree of life) frames this inquiry, and it illustrates relationships and connections that are important to our life-long learning both on an individual and collective basis. / Graduate / mariehunt@cablerocket.com

abstract: This research explores how people's relationships with the spirits of the dead are embedded in political histories. It addresses the ways in which certain spirits were integral "inhabitants" of two social environments with disparate political traditions. Using the prehistoric mortuary record, I investigate the spirits and their involvement in socio-political affairs in the Prehispanic American Southeast and Southwest. Foremost, I construct a framework to characterize particular social identities for the spirits. Ancestors are select, potent beings who are capable of wielding considerable agency. Ancestral spirits are generic beings who are infrequently active among the living and who can exercise agency only in specific contexts. Anonymous groups of spirits are collectives who exercise little to no agency. I then examine the performance of mortuary ritual to recognize these social identities in the archaeological record. Multivariate analyses evaluate how particular ritual actions memorialized the dead. They concentrate on treatment of the body, construction of burial features, inclusion of material accompaniments, and the spaces of ritual action. Each analysis characterizes the social memories that ritual acts shaped for the spirits. When possible, I supplement analysis of archaeological data with ethnohistoric and ethnographic information. Finally, I compile the memories to describe the social identities for the spirits of the dead. In this study, I examine the identities surrounding the spirits in both a Mississippian period settlement on the Georgia coast and in several Protohistoric era Zuni towns in the northern Southwest. Results indicate that ancestors were powerful members of political factions in coastal Mississippian communities. In contrast, ancestral spirits and collectives of long-dead were custodians of group histories in Zuni communities. I contend that these different spirits were rooted in political traditions of competition. Mississippian ancestors were influential agents on cultural landscapes filled with contestation over social power. Puebloan ancestral spirits were keepers of histories on landscapes where power relations were masked, and where new kinds of communities were coalescing. This study demonstrates that the spirits of the dead are important to anthropological understandings of socio-political trajectories. The spirits are at the heart of the ways in which history influences and determines politics. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2014

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The issue of libation poses an important challenge to Christianity in Africa and, more specifically, among the Akan people in Ghana. Libation is traditionally a key ritual for the Akan as an ethnic group. However, the European missionaries who operated in West Africa condemned this ritual as idolatrous. Following the emergence of African Christian theology, especially within the Ghanaian context, various African theologians have contributed to a more systematic discussion of such libation practices. This thesis entails a critical comparison of the views of four Akan (in Ghana) theologians on Christian participation in libation practices. On this basis, the research problem in this thesis is stated in the following way: ―What are the points of divergence that lie beneath the different positions of Kwesi Sarpong, Kwesi Dickson, John Pobee and Kwame Bediako on the question of whether and in what forms Christian participation in libation practices in an Akan context in Ghana may be regarded as compatible with the Christian faith? This thesis describes analyses, compares and assesses the cultural and theological presuppositions of the views of these four Akan Ghanaian theologians on Christian participation in libation rituals. It shows how the views of these four theologians on libation are influenced by their views on the tatus which is attributed, both in Akan culture and in contemporary Christianity in Ghana, to abosom (lesser divinities) and nsamamfo (ancestors) in relation to Onyame (Supreme Being). The purpose of this thesis is therefore to clarify the cultural and theological assumptions underlying current debates on the observance of libation rituals by Christians in Ghana. The task is a description of the views of Sarpong, Dickson, Pobee and Bediako on the compatibility of Christian participation in libation practices in an Akan context with the Christian faith - just as they themselves understand its content and significance. In this thesis I approached the debate on libation in African Christian theology in two ways, namely following a direct and a thematic approach. In the direct approach the focus is explicitly on libation as a topic either in the context of African traditional religion and culture by itself or in its encounter with Christianity. In the thematic approach the focus is on libation within the context of its wider religious (with reference to God, the lesser divinities and ancestors) and cultural (the relationship between Christianity and African culture) contexts. The research indicates that the point of divergence amongst the four theologians mentioned above is almost always related to the invocation and petition of the lesser divinities and the ancestors. In addition to these major theological issues, "ecclesiastical sanctions" also forms a major determining factor that influences the positions of these; theologians. On their respective views, Sarpong asserts that libation in its present form is not incompatible with the Christian faith. By contrast, Bediako maintains that libation as is presently practiced among the Akan is not compatible with the Christian faith neither can it be adapted into the Christian faith. On the other hand, Dickson and Pobee maintain that libation rituals are not compatible with the Christian faith, but that it can be adopted and adapted into the Christian faith if the content of the accompanying prayer is made in consonance with Christian theology. The thesis is comprised of eight chapters and a postscript. In the postscript, I offer some personal views and argue that libation has to be adapted before it can be compatible with the Christian faith. I suggest that libation should be made only to God and to the ancestors. Petitions during libation rituals should be made only to God, while the presence of the ancestors should be recognized in a "symbolic manner" by an invitation to join the living human beings to make such petitions. / South Africa

Student Number: 0111461R Master of Arts in Translation Faculty of Humanities / The Wrath of the Ancestors (Jordan, 1980) is a translation of a classic in Xhosa literature, Ingqumbo Yeminyanya written by the same author. The translation was written for the non-Xhosa speakers to make them aware and understand the culture of amaXhosa. This study then aims at analyzing how aspects of culture have been translated from the source text Ingqumbo Yeminyanya (1940) to the target text The Wrath of the Ancestors (1980). It also investigates the impact of Jordan’s approach on a wider audience. To accomplish this, a descriptive analysis of the strategies used by the translator is carried out. The responses of the selected audiences are also analysed. The analysis reveals that the translator used mainly foreignisation especially in the translation of fixed expressions and idioms, where he used cultural borrowing and calque as strategies. The conclusion drawn from this analysis is that in his attempt to draw his readers closer to the source text, the translator introduced a number of cultural bumps (Leppihalme, 1997), resulting in the target reader struggling to understand some of the cultural aspects in the novel.