Sexually themed objects from ancient Greece and Rome have been present in debates about our relationship with the past and with sexuality since they were first brought to modern attention in large numbers in the Enlightenment period. However, modern engagement with this type of material has very often been characterised as problematic. This thesis pushes beyond the story of reactionary censorship of ancient depictions of sex to demonstrate how these images were meaningfully engaged with across intellectual life in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain and America. It makes a significant and timely contribution to our existing knowledge of a key historical period for the development of the modern understanding of sexuality and cultural representations of it, and the central role that antiquity played in negotiating this fundamental aspect of modernity. Crucially, this work demonstrates how sexual antiquities functioned as symbols of pre-Christian sexual, social and political mores, with which to think through, and to challenge, contemporary cultural constructions around sexuality, religion, gender roles and the development of culture itself. It presents evidence of the widespread and prolific acquisition of sexually themed artefacts throughout private and institutional collecting culture. This deliberate seeking out of ancient images of sex is shown to have been motivated by debates on the universal human connection between sex and religion, as part of wider constructions of notions such as ‘culture’ and ‘primitivism’, with Classical material maintaining a central position in these ideas, despite research into increasingly diverse cultures, past and present. The purposeful engagement with sexual imagery from antiquity is also revealed as having acted as a valuable new source of knowledge about ancient sexual life between men which gave new impetus to the negotiation, defence, celebration and promotion of homoerotic desire in contemporary turn of the twentieth century, Western society.

<p> The dynamics of expanding polities and relationships between cultural core groups, peripheral populations and sites in semi-peripheral areas between the two groups are important topics in studies of complex societies. One area where these distinctions are clearly identified within the settlement pattern formed by the relationship between the cultural and the natural landscape is the Tequila Valleys of Western Mexico. The Teuchitl&aacute;n culture of the Late Formative and Early Classic periods formed distinctive settlements around the edges of the valleys, which were also marginally bound to most complex social developments within the cultural core region near the center of the valleys. Semi-peripheral sites between cultural traditions are of particular interest as focal points for economic, political, and social relationships. This thesis focuses on two sites which occupied very different environments, namely Llano Grande and Las Navajas. I ask whether these sites show different degrees of emphasis on two basic economic strategies in ways which capitalized on the advantages of each site's respective environment. Specifically, did Llano Grande's relative physical isolation from the cultural core area, more distant location and differences in available resources reflect a greater reliance on trade via exported obsidian? Alternatively, did Navajas' closer relation to the core allow a continuance of the core's degree of emphasis on the staple-oriented economy, with less emphasis on obsidian production and trade than Llano Grande? This thesis draws upon the work of Earle (1991) to structure the analysis, particularly his contrast between wealth and staple finance. Past research is reviewed to develop expectations for each model, which are tested using the analysis of obsidian debitage and products within the ritual centers of each site.</p>

<p> Hawai`i's ranching community grew out of indigenous attempts to manage European livestock introduced by explorers and merchants in the late 1700s. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the ranch workforce became increasingly multiethnic with the inclusion of Asian contract laborers and their descendants. This dissertation examines the origins and development of the ranching community to understand the underlying social forces that encouraged the incorporation of immigrants into its ranks. Hawai`i has long been considered a "social laboratory" for studying interethnic relations, and models of assimilation, acculturation, and creolization have been used to describe its multicultural population, but these models inadequately characterize and explain Hawai`i's ranching community. Rather than apply these models uncritically to describe the community's ethnogenesis, this dissertation proposes that a metaphor derived from the Hawaiian concept of <i>pili</i>, roughly "connection" in English, provides a contextualized explanatory framework appropriate to its Hawaiian linguistic, geographic, and cultural origins. <i>Pili </i> describes the ethnogenesis of the ranching community as the formation and reinforcement of kin- and kin-like connections among existing community members and newcomers. Using documentary and archaeological evidence of a century of ranching at Laumai`a on Hawai`i Island, I frame this process as one informed by tensions between two modes of capitalism used on the ranch: on the one hand, an indigenized capitalism that included Hawaiian genealogical and social connections in its management strategies, and on the other, an EuroAmerican form that emphasized profit and efficiency over human connection. These strategies structured the negotiations of identity among ranch workers that transformed transnationals into community members who contributed to a hybrid culture that, paradoxically, remains uniquely Hawaiian.</p>

<p> Using a memory archaeology paradigm, this dissertation explored from 2010 to 2012 the ways people used place-based narratives to create and maintain the sacredness of four historic battlefields in Montana: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument; Nez Perce National Historical Park- Bear Paw Battlefield; Nez Perce National Historical Park- Big Hole National Battlefield; and Rosebud Battlefield State Park. This research implemented a mixed-methods approach of four data sources: historical research about on-site interpretation and land management of the battlefields; participant observations conducted during height of tourism season for each battlefield; 1,056 questionnaires administered to park visitors; and 32 semi-structured interviews with park personnel. Before formulating hypotheses to test, a preliminary literature review was conducted on three battlefields (Culloden, Fallen Timbers, and Isandlwana) for any observable patterns concerning the research domain. </p><p> This dissertation tested two hypotheses to explain potential patterns at the four battlefields in Montana related to on-site interpretation of primary sources, the sacred perception of battlefields, and the maintenance and expression of place-based cultural heritages and historical knowledge. The first hypothesis examined whether park visitors and personnel perceived these American Indian battlefields as nationally significant or if other heritage values associated with the place-based interpretation of the sacred landscapes were more important. Although park visitors and personnel overall perceived the battlefields as nationally important, they also strongly expressed other heritage values. The second hypothesis examined whether battlefield visitors who made pilgrimages to attend or participate in official on-site commemorations had stronger place-based connections for cultural heritage or historical knowledge reasons than other visitors. Overall, these commemoration pilgrims had stronger connections to the battlefields than other park visitors. </p><p> Closer comparisons of the four battlefields demonstrated that they had both similar patterns and unique aspects of why people maintained these landscapes as sacred places.</p>

Because of the centrality of Christ, truly God and truly human, Christian theology regards the understanding of the human as one of its essential tasks. In the wake of environmental concerns, however, the dominant self-understanding of the human is presently being challenged and rethought by Christians. This study is an attempt to contribute to this larger effort of examining the role of the human in Christian theological responses to the ecological "crisis," a question that is surfacing as a paramount concern in this emergent literature. / In this work I examine how the role of the human is an inherent problematic in Christian ecological literature. I review some of the principal categories or paradigms of Christian ecological literature, such as Gaia theory, process theology, new cosmology, ecofeminism, and liberation theology. / All these approaches, I contend, make important contributions to a renewed understanding of human interaction with nature. Yet each model, on its own, seems somewhat incomplete in its portrait of the human. On the one hand, a certain segment of this religious and theological literature diminishes or undervalues the role of the human in our ecological destiny. On the other hand, much of this literature neglects to examine seriously humanity's historical context, which includes economic, political, and social dimensions. / Through a study of these paradigms for approaching the environmental crisis, this work explores the idea that only a theology that views the human agent as a principal actor in both the devastation and reclamation of the life systems of the planet is a viable ecological theology. Such a theology views the human agent in terms of social, economic, political, cultural, moral, as well as ecological transformation in order to confront comprehensively the threats to the planet's ecosystems. With the reading assistance of liberation theology from Latin America, with its emphasis on solidarity, a preferential option for the destitute, and societal transformation, this work raises the possibility of a political theology of the environment, outlining several salient horizons for such a theology.

Note: / Because of the centrality of Christ, truly God and truly human, Christiantheology regards the understanding of the human as one of its essentialtasks. In the wake of environmental concerns, however. the dominantself-understanding of the human is presently being chaUenged andrethought by Christians. This study is an attempt to contribute to thislarger effort of examining the role of the human in Christiantheological responses to the ecological "crisis." a question that issurfacing as a paramount concern in this emergent literature.[...] / Due a la centralite du Christ, vrai dieu et vrai homme, la theologieChretienne considere que l'aspect humain est un element essentiel aetudier. Au milieu des preoccupations environnementales, cependant, lacomprehension dominante de la personne humaine est mise en cause eten train d'etre revisee par les auteurs chn!tiens. Cette etude tachedecontribuer a l'effort plus vaste d'examiner le role de l'etre humainpanni des reponses theologiques chretiennes en face de la criseecologique, cette question se pose comme une preoccupation capitaledans la litterature emergente.[...]

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2529. Adviser: R. Barry Lewis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 186-215) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

This work investigates the historical development of mechanized agriculture within the framework of family farming in Friesland province, the Netherlands. The research follows changing domestic composition in three historic municipalities which have been incorporated into the present day municipality of Franekeradeel. Changes within households are compared to changes in the sources of farm labor and the number of people and farms commercially involved in agriculture. The overall impact of these changes is then weighed with respect to the demographic, as well as the spatial make-up of the rural locality. The objective of the research is to study cultural continuity under conditions of rapidly changing technology. The main inquiry focuses on how rural families have modified productive and consumptive technologies over the last one hundred years to fit local and domestic social conditions. The primary focus is to study how an expansion of agricultural productivity has been effected within the households organizing farming. The secondary focus has been to study the effect expanding productivity has on farming households and local rural society. The analytical framework outlines changing dimensions of property rights by focusing on changes in the social form of labor, which is itself a dynamic property relationship. Other dimensions of historic property relations explored include domestic dynamics, technical change, land tenure patterns, patterns of productive ownership and devolution. Results of the demographic research indicate that since the advent of industrial processing, particularly dairying and crop harvesting, lack of employment and changing expectations for women have led to a higher outmigration of women than men, engendering changes in domestic composition. A diminished number of female headed households and a diminished retention of unmarried adult female, versus male children within the domestic unit are two primary markers. Conclusions arising from the analysis of the social construction of property rights indicate an ongoing diminution of private alienable rights, in favor of increased public/state allocation of property right's content. The construction of rights around the ownership of dairy production values following the establishment of the 1983 European Community quota system provides an example of this.

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