A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the reqirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (anthropology) in the Univeristy of Michigan 2002"--title page. / Dissertation: Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Michigan. " This ia an authorized facsimile, made from the microfilm master copy of the original dissertation or master thesis--UMI.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Anthropology, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 2274. Adviser: Gracia Clark. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Nov. 27, 2006)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drew University, 2006. / (UnM)AAI3222211. Adviser: C. Wesley Ariarajah. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2190.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-04, Section: A, page: 1455. Adviser: Beverly J. Stoeltje. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Nov. 15, 2006)."

This thesis offers an exploration of how one brings a Tibetan sacred text to being - and to voice - in the unfamiliar, and perhaps unlikely, landscape of Northern California. Through 16 months' fieldwork with a Nyingma Buddhist community based in Berkeley, California I ask how the production of the sacred is undertaken here by American volunteers who are largely neophytes to Tibetan Buddhism. Against a backdrop of the history of Tibetan textual production - largely populated by masters, monastics, and artisans - I explore what kind of work (both physical and imaginative) American volunteers must undertake in order to render themselves effective creators of the sacred in this American industrial setting. Drawing on current research that explores the adaptive capacities of Tibetan Buddhist traditional practices, I will offer a new facet to this flexibility through an investigation of the ways these texts and their surrounding practices are creatively deployed to meet the needs of their American makers. In this work I follow the sacred objects through their entangled physical and social creation in the various branches of this California community, from the construction of spaces ripe for sacred work, through fundraising, printing, and finally to the distribution of texts to the Tibetan monastic community in Bodh Gaya, India. In the conclusion I return to the question of how an American volunteer becomes an effective creator of a Tibetan Buddhist sacred text in Berkeley California, contributing a unique and rich case to the study of diasporic Tibetan text production. Ultimately, I will demonstrate that the very practice of creating and deploying Tibetan sacred texts offers a frame through which volunteers come to re-interpret and re-shape their spatial and temporal landscape. This dissertation seeks to bridge often disparate fields of study, allowing encounters between (and contributions to) such bodies of work as: the anthropological study of making, craft, and innovation; media and religious practice; the affective temporality of sacred relics; and the cross-culturally unique, agentive qualities of books.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Anthropology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-228).

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of how members of the Indo-Guyanese community traveled from Guyana to New York City, carrying with them distinct understandings of Hinduism informed by their multiple dislocations and how they utilize religion as ideology and practice to help cultivate their identities as Indo-Guyanese Americans. I argue religion as a mobile concept, what I have termed as ‘religion on the move,’ gives a theoretical frame to understand how devotees adapt religion to help them navigate their identities in unknown territories. By studying more than devout individuals in places of worship, I have followed Caribbean Hinduism and Indo-Guyanese Hindus in New York City to various sites to appreciate how religion informs their experiences, operates on different scales (spatially, politically, and temporally), and negotiates power structures. I found that the Indo-Guyanese Hindu community asserts their ethnicity through Caribbean Hinduism to become visible, to overcome marginalization and to claim belonging in the United States. / 2019-10-17

Esta tese está inserida no debate da relação entre religião e televisão e possui como objetivo analisar as práticas discursivas de atores religiosos no contexto televisivo, comparando três programas de três canais brasileiros distintos. o \"Em Pauta\" da Rede católica Canção Nova, o \"Mundo Maior Repórter\" da TV Mundo Maior, e o \"Fala que eu te escuto\" da Igreja Universal - para estabelecer as semelhanças e as idiossincrasias de cada um, analisando as categorias mobilizadas, o repertório posto em cena, e os significados e as variações semânticas dos termos. Esses programas, do modelo debate, possuem uma determinada configuração: propõem debates de questões candentes da sociedade brasileira; possuem três posições de fala- a figura do especialista no tema da polêmica, o âncora, responsável pelo gerenciamento do debate, e sujeitos anônimos que calcam a argumentação na própria vivência e experiência-; e, por fim, um estilo argumentativo pautado pelo jargão \"jurídico\", \"científico\" e do \"sofrimento\". Vale destacar ainda que produzem, na sua dinâmica, ordenamentos sociais, isto é, eles são modelo teóricos da sociedade que prescrevem a relação da religião com a sociedade. Desse modo, eles participam de um debate público que pretende definir suas posições na ordem social. / This thesis is inserted in the debate of the relationship between religion and television and aims to analyze the discursive practices of religious actors in the television context, comparing three programs from three different Brazilian channels. - The \"Em Pauta\" of the Rede católica Canção Nova, the \"Mundo Maior Repórter\" of TV Mundo Maior, and the \"Fala que eu te escuto\" from the Igreja Universal- to establish the similarities and idiosyncrasies of each one, analyzing the categories mobilized, the repertoire put on the scene, and the meanings and the semantic variations of the terms. These programs, of the debate model, have a certain configuration: they propose debates on burning issues of Brazilian society; they have three positions of speech - the figure of the expert on the theme of controversy, the \"centralizing presenter\", responsible for the management of the debate, and anonymous subjects who put the argument in their own life trajectory and experience; and, finally, an argumentative style based on \"legal\", \"scientific\" and \"suffering\" jargon. It is also worth mentioning that they produce, in their dynamics, social orderings, that is, they are the theoretical model of society that prescribes the relationship between religion and society. In this way, they participate in a public debate that intends to define their positions in the social order.

Esta tese está inserida no debate da relação entre religião e televisão e possui como objetivo analisar as práticas discursivas de atores religiosos no contexto televisivo, comparando três programas de três canais brasileiros distintos. o \"Em Pauta\" da Rede católica Canção Nova, o \"Mundo Maior Repórter\" da TV Mundo Maior, e o \"Fala que eu te escuto\" da Igreja Universal - para estabelecer as semelhanças e as idiossincrasias de cada um, analisando as categorias mobilizadas, o repertório posto em cena, e os significados e as variações semânticas dos termos. Esses programas, do modelo debate, possuem uma determinada configuração: propõem debates de questões candentes da sociedade brasileira; possuem três posições de fala- a figura do especialista no tema da polêmica, o âncora, responsável pelo gerenciamento do debate, e sujeitos anônimos que calcam a argumentação na própria vivência e experiência-; e, por fim, um estilo argumentativo pautado pelo jargão \"jurídico\", \"científico\" e do \"sofrimento\". Vale destacar ainda que produzem, na sua dinâmica, ordenamentos sociais, isto é, eles são modelo teóricos da sociedade que prescrevem a relação da religião com a sociedade. Desse modo, eles participam de um debate público que pretende definir suas posições na ordem social. / This thesis is inserted in the debate of the relationship between religion and television and aims to analyze the discursive practices of religious actors in the television context, comparing three programs from three different Brazilian channels. - The \"Em Pauta\" of the Rede católica Canção Nova, the \"Mundo Maior Repórter\" of TV Mundo Maior, and the \"Fala que eu te escuto\" from the Igreja Universal- to establish the similarities and idiosyncrasies of each one, analyzing the categories mobilized, the repertoire put on the scene, and the meanings and the semantic variations of the terms. These programs, of the debate model, have a certain configuration: they propose debates on burning issues of Brazilian society; they have three positions of speech - the figure of the expert on the theme of controversy, the \"centralizing presenter\", responsible for the management of the debate, and anonymous subjects who put the argument in their own life trajectory and experience; and, finally, an argumentative style based on \"legal\", \"scientific\" and \"suffering\" jargon. It is also worth mentioning that they produce, in their dynamics, social orderings, that is, they are the theoretical model of society that prescribes the relationship between religion and society. In this way, they participate in a public debate that intends to define their positions in the social order.

Purification, which involves ceremonial acts or customs employed to gain purity in order td create sacred spaces, represents a vital aspect of religious practice both historically and cross-culturally (Cunningham 2003.(1988]:48). Preparations for passing into sacred spaces of worship are important elements of ritual life for nearly all faith communities. Mt thesis has two important research goals: (1) to examine the purification practices of contemporary Paganism; and, (2) analyze the degree to which contemporary Pagans have adapted a syncretic approach to these cleansing rituals. With regards to the former goal, I address the following three questions: what is the significance of religious purification rituals historically and cross-culturally?; why is purification especially important to contemporary Pagans?; and how have different forms of Paganism varied in their purifying methods? With regards to the latter research goal, I critically review diverse cultural traditions and belief systems variously integrated into contemporary Pagan practices of purification. The influence of Native American, European, and other Old and New World traditions and techniques are all considered in the context of this thesis. Taken as a whole, this type of overview is significant as the scholarly literature on contemporary Paganism and Pagan purification rituals remains sketchy and incomplete at this stage.