Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2004. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-01, Section: A, page: 0290. Co-Chairs: Henry Glassie; Gregory Schrempp. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 12, 2006).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Anthropology and School of Education, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 16, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-10, Section: A, page: 3877. Adviser: Thomas A. Schwandt.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1142. Adviser: Ruth M. Stone. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 18, 2007)."

This thesis investigates the meanings of Christian salvation within the context of the AIDS pandemic in South Africa. The pandemic poses enormous social, economic, developmental, as well as theological, problems for the fledgling democracy of South Africa. The pandemic has stricken the whole continent of Africa particularly forcefully, but in South Africa, where there had been expectations of a new order since the peaceful overthrow of the apartheid government in 1994, the expectations of "salvation" for the nation have been cruelly dashed by the force of the pandemic. With the aid of a lemma, I show that salvation is neither equivalent to and coextensive with political liberation, nor reducible to a unassignable spiritual state of being in relationship with Christ. Rather, as in Old Testament writings, salvation should be understood as having direct bearing on the immediate context of the person or nation in question---which understanding is frequently overlooked. In the context of AIDS, then, an understanding of salvation should have a bearing on social death due to the stigma of the condition; on the healing of the illness itself; on the reconciliation of people whose lives are immediately affected by the pandemic; on addressing those social factors which allow the spread of HIV, and on the tardiness in the provision of effective medical care for people with various AIDS-related illnesses. In the thesis I demonstrate that another unavoidable dimension of the "New" South Africa is the traditional Bantu cult of the ancestors. I cite numerous reports showing that the cult is widely practiced, even by Christians. The ancestors are therefore an unavoidable dimension of the common religious understanding of life. If the meanings of salvation in the pandemic are being sought, then it would be a grave oversight not to consider how they relate to the cult of the ancestors. This research has shown that the cult of the ancestors makes a definite contribution to an understanding of salvation in the context of the pandemic in South Africa. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The present dissertation, titled "Imperial Doors of Assyria," aims to examine the artistic form and cultural value of Neo-Assyrian architectural doors as highlighted by the three concepts of monumentality, spatiality, and rituality, using the three bronze-banded wooden doors from Balawat as a case study. Having introduced the materials and questions to be raised in this dissertation in the introductory Chapter I, Chapter II on the "monumentality" of the Balawat doors explores the commemorative value of the Balawat doors respectively through material, image and text. The scale and material was the "vehicle of conveyance" for monumentality. The commemorative value of the Balawat doors as Assyrian imperial monuments lies also in their ability to tell stories through historical narrative relief imagery on decorative bronze bands, and cuneiform texts accompanying the reliefs. Chapter III on "spatiality" engages with a spatial reading of the door-band programs, and argues for a "spatial schema" governing the historical narrative on both the closed and the open door. When closed, the program reflects a "center -- periphery" schema, implying a political order between the Assyrian king and his conquered lands; when open, it changes into an "inside -- outside" schema, indicating an ideological order between the god, the people, and the king in-between as an intermediary connecting the two. Either way, the "spatial schema" encapsulates the essence of a clearly Assyrian-oriented world order, with the king always at the center/inside as the maintainer of such order. Chapter IV on "rituality" examines how the monumental doors interacted with people, and how the monumental space was then transformed into a "ritual place." Owing to the architectural function and commemorative value of the Balawat doors, their "rituality" lies in both their constructive roles of ritual events enacted at the doors, and reflective roles of ritual activities depicted on the doors. These two aspects would have cooperated and interacted with each other, and constitute a self-referential system which then reinforces the effectiveness of the ritually-meaningful images on the door. The final Chapter V concludes by highlighting the case of the Balawat doors as an important disclosure of the rules that manifested the syntax of the artistic, architectural, and social expressions of imperial Assyria. As visual metaphors for the Assyrian proto-imperial system, the door-band decorative programs demonstrate the ambitious world view of an expanding territorial state, soon to become one of the strongest empires in the ancient world.

This dissertation investigates why men in small-scale societies participate in warfare. The answer to this question has implications for understanding the role of war in our species’ history, as well as the evolution of cooperation. I explore this question through ethnographic research using data from small-scale societies. A central component of this research was undertaken through fieldwork among the Nyangatom, a group of pastoralists in East Africa still practicing small-scale warfare. Chapter One provides an introduction to the primary question of this dissertation. It also provides details on the methods used as well as background on the fieldwork I conducted. Chapter Two develops the cultural-rewards hypothesis, which posits that cultures encourage participation in warfare through the development of positive cultural incentives for warriors. It tests this hypothesis using cross-cultural data from 20 small-scale societies and shows a positive relationship between cultural reward systems and risk-taking in warfare. Chapter Three introduces the Nyangatom, a group of nomadic pastoralists living along the border of Ethiopia, South Sudan, and the Ilemi Triangle. Chapter Four provides a detailed ethnographic description of warfare among the Nyangatom, including the first documented account of many ritual elements in warfare for any Ateker group. Chapter Five focuses on the question of whether warriors have additional wives or children compared to other men. Over a lifetime, warriors who participated in more small livestock raids had a greater number of wives and children. Leaders of large raids, however, did not have an increased number of wives and children. Chapter Six evaluates the role of sanctions in motivating participation in raiding parties for three groups, including the Nyangatom. It shows a possibly important role of verbal sanctions for raiding party participation but provides little support for the importance of more serious sanctions. Chapter Seven summarizes the results of this dissertation and briefly sketches future research that will continue to explore the question of why individuals participate in intergroup conflict. / Human Evolutionary Biology

“Black Musics, African Lives, and the National Imagination in Modern Israel,” explores the forms and functions of African and Afro-diasporic musics amidst heated public debate around ethnic identity and national membership. Focusing on musical-political activity among Ethiopian Israeli citizens, Sudanese and Eritrean refugees, and West African labor migrants in Tel Aviv, I examine how diverse types of musicking, from nightclub DJing and live performance to church services and protest concerts, voice African and Afro-descendent claims to civic status in a fractured urban environment. Grounded in ethnographic participant observation, the dissertation analyzes musical and political activity through the lens of “interpretive modes” that shape contemporary Israel’s national consciousness, and which influence African and Afro-descendant experiences within Israeli society. These include “Israeliyut,” or the valorization of so-called native Israeli cultural forms and histories; “Africani,” an emerging set of aesthetic and social values that integrates African and Afro-descendent subjectivities into existing frameworks of Israeli identity; and “glocali,” or the effort to reconcile local Israeli experience with aspects of globalization. Tracing “blackness” as an ideological and aesthetic category through five decades of public discourse and popular culture, I examine the disruptions to this category precipitated by Israel’s 21st century encounter with African populations. I find that the dynamics of debate over African presence influence an array of mass-cultural processes, including post-Zionism, conceptions of ethnic “otherness,” and the splintering of Israel’s left into increasingly narrow interest groups. Contributing to the literature on continuity and change within urban-dwelling African diasporas, this dissertation is the first monograph exploring dramatic transformations of Israel’s highly consolidated national culture through in-depth ethnography with migrant groups. / Music

Located in the heart of Lower Manhattan, the 9/11 Tribute Center is a small memorial museum that commemorates the attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath. Tribute’s five small galleries house numerous exhibits and artifacts; however, this museum is most widely recognized for its daily walking tours, which are led by individuals who hold direct connections to the attacks. These docents—who include survivors, first responders, rescue and recovery workers, local residents, and family members of the deceased—share historical information, statistics, and their own stories as they lead visitors around the new World Trade Center site. Drawing from four years of ethnographic research and interviews at this memorial museum, my dissertation argues that Tribute has been a site of profound meaning making for many individuals struggling to gain purchase on an event that shattered their lives. I employ an existential and phenomenological approach to show how everyday acts of memorialization, storytelling, and walking have allowed individuals to cultivate a sense of agency and restore intersubjective bonds. Case studies also illuminate the complex interplay between personal memory and collective memory at this site as docents attempt to navigate the space between private and public realms. In analyzing the continual negotiation of memory and discourse, I reveal how tensions can inhere when individual and official framings of the past diverge. Particular attention is given to the ambiguous place of religious narratives, histories, and interpretations of the past at Tribute, an institution that strives to remain religiously and politically neutral. I analyze the reasons why Tribute’s leaders have attempted to prohibit conversations about religion from their site while also pointing to some of the consequences—both individual and social—of their framing. Ultimately, this dissertation makes two important contributions to the field of Religious Studies. First, this work moves beyond conventional frames of reference to analyze the manifold resources (whether conventionally called “religious” or not) upon which humans draw to reconstruct viable lives in the wake of a trauma. And, second, it examines how institutional ideas about religion can shape exhibits, tours, and larger public perceptions of an event.

The annual Fiesta of Santiago Apóstol is the most significant religious festival in Loíza, Puerto Rico. This dissertation examines this religious ritual applying an indigenous methodological approach I call sobre la marcha, meaning “on the move.” Sobre la marcha places at the center the voices and the stories of the people of Loíza. Focusing on people’s every day lives, or lo cotidiano, I bring to the forefront people’s lived experiences, their individual perspectives, and their indigenous ways of being. This ethnographic approach is known as ethnographies of the particular, privileging the people’s own stories, their feelings, sufferings, contradictions, aspirations, hopes, etc. Beginning with the lived experiences of a limited number of people who identify as Loiceños (natives of Loíza), their voices illuminate the complex movements great and small that are part of their quotidian experiences, lo cotidiano. This includes testimonies from a local artist and an Espiritista practitioner, who speak about the presence of the ancestors and the rituals that maintain a relationship between the living and the dead. The people known as Mantenedores, or keepers of the image of Santiago Apóstol, also share their stories of the miraculous apparition of Santiago Apóstol and how the Santiago came to live among the people of Loíza. Through the stories of the Mantenedores we get a glimpse of what it means to be a Mantenedor/a, their responsibilities, how the processions are organized, and how the people of Loíza express their devotion to Santiago Apóstol. Finally, I include a discussion about rescate de terrenos (land rescues) within the context of the gentrification of Loíza and the impact upon the people’s every day lives. As a coastal town, Loíza faces constant threat of indiscriminate tourism expansion. Gentrification displaces individuals and tears apart entire communities who risk losing their homes and their communally held cultural and religious rituals. In summary, this thesis examines The Fiesta of Santiago Apóstol, Espiritismo, and rescates de terreno (land rescues) in Loíza, Puerto Rico, through the oral testimonies of a limited number of people. Applying ethnographies of the particular, these oral testimonies show lo cotidiano, the day-to-day movements by the people and their connection to the movements within the processions of the Fiesta of Santiago Apóstol, the healing rituals of Espiritismo, and the rescates de terreno (land rescues). All of these movements come together sobre la marcha, on the move, and are filled with potentiality for transformation in the face of multiple oppressions.

Abstract not available.