This thesis is about popular rejoicing and public ritual in Norwich and Coventry from the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the Reform of the Municipal Corporations in 1835. It is distinctive in at least two ways; first in its attention to the local context, and second in its examination of public festivity as a separate, but not an isolated, cultural form. Previous studies of the subject have generally looked at rejoicing and ritual as but one strand of a larger, fairly amorphous, popular culture and done so on a national or even a continental level. The study is divided into three parts. The first is largely descriptive; an account of the festive events, whether on the annual holiday calendar or not, which took place in Norwich and Coventry at or about 1750. This not only sets the scene for the analysis which follows, it also indicates the extent to which rejoicing and ritual was subject to social, political and economic change. That this was so will become clear in the second part of this study which identifies the three major developments to affect the conduct of and attitudes to public festivity at Norwich and Coventry in this period; commercialisation, political change and the divergence of polite and plebeian cultures. The extent to which the impact of these developments varied between the two cities is also explored in this section, as it is in part three of the thesis which is made of two case studies, one of the Norwich Guild and the other of the Coventry Show Fair. The very different form and fortune of these two events will be seen to confirm the importance of studying rejoicing and ritual in relation to the most immediate context in which it was performed.

Based on the author's long term fieldwork from 2005 to 2008 in Qiaoxiang, a rural Hakka community in Xingning County, Guangdong Province, Southeastern China, this dissertation examines how the revival of tradition in contemporary China can be understood through the dynamic interaction and negotiation among state, villagers and local elites. This ethnography describes the history and reality of tumultuous social change in the community, especially in Maoist and post-Maoist times, and shows how the villagers living in weilongwu, a characteristic lineage or multi-family compound of the Hakka heartland, have managed to mobilize political, social and cultural resources to deal with outside forces in contemporary China. I analyze how the Maoist state's attempts to break down kinship ties failed and how kinship's importance has been maintained and strengthened in both collective and post-collective periods. This dissertation focuses on how the participation and collaboration of ordinary villagers and village elites facilitates a vigorous revival of tradition, including the establishment of organizations at the level of lineage and community, the reediting of genealogies, the rebuilding and renovation of ancestral halls, and most importantly, the reactivation of kinship rituals. I demonstrate how the active engagement and complicated entanglement of socialist state, overseas power and other contemporary forces has shaped and reshaped the social and cultural landscape of the local community. I argue that the revival of tradition is by no means a remnant of the past or a total invention; instead, traditions are forming within the fluctuating context of Late Imperial legacy, state imposition and uncertain modernity. I also argue that the ordinary villagers are not passive subjects of domination by state power or other forces; instead, they are sophisticated activists possessing the strategic competence and wisdom to deal with the circumstances in which they live. In this sense, tradition should be taken as the practice of ordinary people in an ongoing process of inventing and becoming.

This dissertation examines the ethnicization of Islam among a specific ethnic group in China, namely the Hui. It is based upon sixteen months of multi-sited fieldwork conducted in China's Henan Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from 2010 to 2012. I argue that the particular ethno-imaginary of the Hui and their positioning vis-à-vis the Han majority - that they are both non-Han and more Han than the Han - are predicated upon a particular sexual economy. Islam is situated in an imagined dissymmetrical exchange of woman as that whose presumed truth can procure for the Hui the feminine "Han blood." The "nativization" of Islam among the Hui, i.e. its supposedly never complete "sinicization," occurs through the figure of the Han woman. In Part I of this dissertation, I trace the itinerary of this figure in both historiographical narratives of the Hui in the early twentieth century and the organizational variations of their contemporary life as Muslims in a swiftly-changing China. In Part II, I move to a more general level, and study two major institutions in the Chinese state's governance of ethnic difference, namely ethnic regional autonomy and ethnic cadre. I situate them within the socialist tradition and unpack their specificity in contrast to other political configurations in the governance of ethnic difference (e.g. liberal multiculturalism). I suggest that this socialist governance of difference is defined by a biopolitical logic, and argue that the link to sexuality that is intrinsic to the concept of biopolitics renders the Hui a particularly privileged site for exploring the complex relationship between the socialist politics of ethnicity and the socialist governance of sexuality.

This research studies undocumented policy practices within UK aid in general and the Department for International Development (DFID) in particular. It focuses on the policy practices or initiatives taken by various actors in influencing and shaping policy in the everyday life of aid bureaucracy. For this purpose, I have chosen as case study the evolution of DFID's Social exclusion (policy) framework within the timeframe of 1997-2010. The research findings identify undocumented initiatives taken by the policy entrepreneurs within aid bureaucracy. These efforts are directed not only towards benefitting the global poor but also at increasing institutional efficacy in delivering aid. Policy entrepreneurs execute these policy practices, also termed policy entrepreneurship, proactively on the political, administrative, and executive levels. Anthropological analysis and methods allow me to look beyond formal policy processes at the undocumented policy practices. Many development professionals, consultants, and office bearers while walking on the tight rope of internal policy and bearing the cross of the highly politicized organizational culture of the DFID, skilfully conveyed advice based on empirical insights to those high up. They transfer their disciplinary knowledge and empirical understandings to the policy makers and political actors in the larger interest of the development industry as well as the poor from recipient countries. On the one hand, from an anthropological perspective, this study broadens our understanding of the classical rational model of decision making within the bureaucracy. On the other hand, in the context of contemporary DFID bureaucracy, it highlights how civil servants resolve the moral-political conflict between their obligations towards the institutions they work with and their solidarity towards issues of human rights and social justice through their activism and policy entrepreneurial spirit.

The taste for fish in England and the British Isles as a whole has fluctuated on several occasions and understanding the reasons behind these changes is vital, especially in light of the great importance fish held in later medieval diet and society. The beginnings of marine fishing have usually been thought to lie in the late Anglo-Saxon period and are believed to lie with economic changes. Indeed, most studies of fish in archaeology have centred around economic approaches. However it is extremely unlikely for economics to have been the sole reason. This thesis will attempt to fill in the gap currently extant in early medieval fish studies by taking a multidisciplinary approach to exploring the character of fishing and fish consumption in Anglo-Saxon England. Zooarchaeological data alongside isotope evidence, artefactual, structural and textual will be considered together to explore not just economic but also social factors, in effect, exploring the dynamics of fishing and fish consumption. This multidisciplinary approach will also hopefully highlight the fact that fish cannot just be studied in isolation; to gain a full understanding of the implications freshwater and marine fishing will have on communities and society as a whole all aspects of fishing must be considered.

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Interethnic communication is the focus of this thesis, as the basis for understanding Mexican culture and identity as a dynamic and complex process, which acts, from the past and in the present, to create what Mexicans are and will be.By exploring different instances where interethnic communication occurs and produces various representations of culture, this work shows the complexities of interethnic exchanges at different levels of Mexican society (in the community or in the nation) and at different moments of its history (from the conquest to the present).This complex picture is constructed using an interdisciplinary framework that includes radical ethnography, social semiotics and new social history; all of them oriented to the understanding of culture as a meaningful way to analyse society in the context of its cultural, economic and political life.Through different interethnic activities (political meetings, cultural representations, religious practices, economic activities, institutional projects, social movements) this research explores what Indian creativity can offer to construct a society that is simultaneously ancient and new, united and diverse, Indian and Mexican, and, more than ever, just and inclusive of all sectors that form Mexican society / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (Social Ecology)

This thesis reviews the practice of female circumcision in Islamic Africa. I chose this geographical location for my study because of the high incidence of female circumcision in Africa. The majority of female circumcision in Africa is practiced in cultures that follow the religion of Islam. The general consensus of contemporary literature in this field of study argues that female circumcision has no religious basis for the practice. This is based on the fact that the Quran contains no explicit, or implicit, command for the practice. I disagree with this approach and believe my thesis fills a gap that exists in current literature. I argue that there are two main perspectives within Islam which I define as Quranic Islam and traditional Islam. Quranic Islam is defined in this thesis as the Muslim faith that accepts only the Quran as the basis and sole authority for its beliefs and practices. Traditional Islam is defined as the Muslim faith that accepts the Quran, and extra-Quranic sources - such as, but not limited to, the Haddith, Sharia, Sunna, and fatwas - as the basis for its belief structure. I argue that the basis for accepting the practice of female circumcision as a religious rite in Islamic Africa is found in traditional Islam. / thesis (MA(Religion))--University of South Australia, 2001.

Bedsharing between infants and parents interacts with many factors to increase the risk of SIDS, eg maternal smoking, alcohol or drug consumption, overtiredness, excessive bedding and younger infant. However, bedsharing also encourages breastfeeding, settles babies, reduces parental tiredness and increases mother-baby interactions. We studied infants in the natural setting of their own home, in their usual situation (bedsharing or cot-sleeping) to identify risks and benefits, and to understand how bedsharing could be made safer for all infants. Methods: Overnight home video and physiological recordings of 40 bedshare infants (5-27 weeks), were compared with 40 cot infants matched for age and study season. Video data provided a log of infant/parent sleep positions, movements and interactions. The physiological recordings measured respiratory pattern, respiratory airflow, inspired CO2, oxygen saturation (SaO2), heart rate and core, peripheral and environmental temperatures. Results: All infants maintained normal core temperatures overnight although bedshare infants had a higher shin temperature [35.43 vs 34.60°C at 2hrs after sleep onset (difference 0.83, 95% CI: 0.18 to 1.49)]. Bedshare infants had thicker bedding (RR:2.35 (95% CI:1.76 to 3.14) and more face covered time [0.9h/night vs 0.2 (RR:5.62, 95% CI: 3.08 to 10.25)]. Awakenings in the bedshare group were more common, of shorter duration, and caused less change in infant temperatures. Exposure to >3% CO2 occurred in 18 bedshare infants and 1 swaddled, cot-sleep infant. The maximum exposure time was the same for both groups (60mins). These levels of CO2 significantly (p<0.05) elevated breathing rate and maintained normal SaO2. Central apnoeas of 5-10 seconds resulted in drops in SaO2 <90% (BS mean 6.8/night vs cot: 3.1, p<0.001). SaO2 rarely fell below 85% and heart rate did not ever fall below 90bpm. Bedshare infants commonly slept on their side, while cot infants slept supine. Prone sleeping was rare (BS:5 infants, 1.6-3.5h/night vs cot:2, 8.9-10.2) and for bedshare infants involved sleeping on mother�s chest. Bedshare infants woke and fed more frequently (mean wake times/night: 4.6 vs 2.5), but total sleep time was not different. Maternal checks were more frequent in the bedshare group (median:10, IQ range:7-23, max:55) than cot ( 4, 3-6, 16) and bedshare mothers frequently responded to infant initiated movements. During bedsharing baby and mother usually slept facing each other, touching, with infants at mothers� breast level. Father (or sibling) contact was rare. Conclusions: Bedshare infants sleep in a warmer environment and experience more potentially dangerous events such as head-covering and rebreathing. However, all infants in this study maintained normal rectal temperature and SaO2 suggesting they were protected by homeostatic responses. Infant safety is also facilitated by frequent maternal checking and maternal responses to infant movements. The mother-infant proximity during bedsharing allows prompt responses, reduces time infants are upset, and minimises disruption from frequent breast feeding - aspects valued by many. It is not known if infants of smoking mothers or parents with impaired responses eg due to alcohol, respond adequately to the potentially dangerous situations identified. Outcome: The results of this study will be used to formulate recommendations to parents for improving the safety of bedsharing.

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of change and retention in Maori material culture during the protohistoric is recommended. The principal disciplines involved are history, ethnology, ethnography and archaeology. Each exploits a different research resource and together in synthesis they can offer a more comprehensive understanding of culture change. This study concentrates on the material culture subsystem of Maori culture; yet it can only be effectively studied if the relationship between this subsystem and others is unravelled. Hence the need for an interdisciplinary methodology. �Classic� Maori material culture is briefly outlined in Chapter One. Historical aspects of the protohistoric period are discussed in Chapter Two. Chapter Three outlines the various potential sources of interdisciplinary input in a study of contact period Maori material culture change and assesses contributions made to this study by other researchers. Chapter Four summarizes the major themes of retention and adaptation in relation to particular aspects of post-contact Maori material culture change in the protohistoric period are outlined in Chapter Five. This study has taken a generalized approach to a problem which has a number of different regional manifestations. A framework is provided within which detailed regional assessments can be made. Such studies will be the most effective way of testing whether the hypotheses derived from this research are adequate to explain the changes, retentions and adaptations in Maori material culture during the protohistoric period.