No description available.

This thesis investigates evidence for the cultural lives of domestic objects in Late Antiquity. As such, it focuses on objects as meaningful possessions, rather than their practical, utilitarian functions. In particular, this research seeks to reveal the personal meaning for domestic possessions and their sentimental, as opposed to economic, value. This is something that has either been ignored or mentioned only in passing and without further qualification in existing studies of late antique material culture. This research is underpinned by specific theoretical approaches from the disciplines of archaeology, art history and anthropology. Object biography, or the understanding that events in the lives of objects can affect their meaning and value, is key to this investigation and provides the opportunity to approach the material evidence in a novel way. It allows the direct comparison of previously disparate textual and archaeological sources to better understand the relationships between people and their possessions across a broad social spectrum. It also governs the structure of the thesis, which has chapters on heirlooms, gifts, and souvenirs – all of which are defined by an element of their biography, namely the context of their acquisition. The case study chapter also examines a generally ignored artefact type – the basket – bringing this undervalued example of domestic material culture to the fore. This thesis reveals that personal domestic possessions had the capacity to function as material vehicles for intangible thoughts, memories, and relationships. This function was known and exploited by the people of Late Antiquity in order to create and possess meaningful domestic objects of various types. It provides a new interpretation of domestic material culture that is different to more traditional studies of economic and social status. As such, it allows an understanding of how material culture transformed dwellings into homes during this period.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of accountability in the context of civilization change in China. Using a Foucaultian epistemic framework and archaeological method, data has been gathered from four sources: textual, interviews, case studies and surveys. Each source has been considered in terms of the viability of the modern episteme and the possibility of episteme change to ecological civilization taking place in China. Also the actors in the sustainability accountability network have been identified along with the key contingencies that could lead to changes in accountability in China. Based on the data collected there is strong evidence that the existing industrial civilization in China is seen to be unsustainable. Also that there are particular contingencies in place in China that make episteme change both likely and perhaps already taking place. The key contingency in this research is the metaphysical continuum based on harmony ideas in ancient Chinese philosophy. As a result there are strong grounds for predicting that new forms of accountability will be based around groupings of organizations in provinces, geographical areas (river basins) and regions, feeding up to accountability for sustainability at national and supra-national levels. Practically this research has opened up the possibility of accountability in China that could seriously address sustainability issues rather than the typical Western approaches based on empty rhetoric to improve reputation and legitimacy. This research has operationalized Foucault’s ideas on episteme change empirically in China. As such it represents an original contribution to research on sustainability and accountability responses thereto.

The main theme of my thesis is that Spenglerian analysis of western civilization as declining is correct, in that specifically western culture and civilization is giving way ,more and more, to a world culture-pattern; but my thesis disagrees with his version of the decadence of all art-forms today as part of a declining culture, postulating rather that, specifically in the arts of Architecture and film, there is enormous activity of a creative nature. My thesis also quarrels with Spengler's analysis of the relations existing between the economic- forms of society and the art-objects produced by that society. He states that the economic forms are the product of the soul of the culture. I contend that the art-products of the culture mirror the motivating drives of the economic forces of the social group while in a state of considerable interaction with them. I have tried to present my thesis , with both positions clearly stated, quoting Spengler at some length on the one hand, and Lewis Mumford at an equal length on the other, and with a supporting citation from Kuth Benedict's book, "Patterns of Culture" on social patterns of a more primitive nature. My thesis is divided into four chapters, the first serving as an introduction to the point-of-view and thematic material of the whole work; the second and third covering the recorded history of the motivating drives of western historical periods, drawing from this material to support my contention of the basic relationship existing between the methods of production in a social group and the art-objects produced by that group. In the final chapter, I have attempted to sum up the inferences from the historical chapters and to present my thesis and its main position in some detail. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

Critical thinking is a widely shared educational goal which has been granted more explicit attention than ever in recent years. Five major approaches to this area of educational concern have been influential to the development of educational practices, research programs, and conceptualization in the field. Three of these approaches (the 'process' or basic skills approach, the problem solving approach, and the logic approach) are found to be based on unfounded assumptions about the nature of reasoning and thinking, and inadequate attention to the purposes which make critical thinking such a widely accepted educational goal. A fourth (the information processing approach) is found to involve instances of reductionism which render incoherent many of the terms with which we understand and assess our own reasoning, and that of others. The fifth approach (the multi-aspect approach associated with Robert Ennis) is not so essentially flawed, but is found to contain some significant problems. Most notably there is a problem with fixing the reference of 'mental abilities' (which is essential for the issue of generalizability of critical thinking abilities) and with understanding the relationship between judgment and the other aspects of critical thinking. It is argued that writers in the field of critical thinking generally have tried to purchase objectivity for their conceptions by connecting them with the ideal of disengaged knowledge, either as exemplified by the study of formal logic or the natural sciences. It is argued that, in contrast with this approach, we ought to recognize that values and value judgments are at the heart of critical thinking. The ideal of disengagement tends to interfere with our understanding of thinking as a normative (rule-governed) activity grounded in our social practices. This thesis argues for the adoption of a realist position with regard to values, an expressivist understanding of language, an interpretive stance toward the study of rationality, and a social constructivist conception of rules. Some consequences of these positions for instruction, teacher preparation, and future research are suggested. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Although gladiatorial spectacles in ancient Rome have been the subject of a great deal of recent scholarly literature, comparatively little attention has been paid to the contemporary animal spectacles and staged beast-hunts (venationes), the events most closely associated with gladiatorial combat in the imperial period. A number of different works have dealt with such topics as the origins and organization of gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome, but relatively few scholars have attempted to address similar questions concerning the venationes. Only a single monograph in English, written approximately 60 years ago, has been produced on the phenomenon of Roman animal spectacles. The purpose of .this thesis is to give a comprehensive account of Roman venationes and animal displays, incorporating, in certain cases, evidence that has only recently become available or has largely been overlooked by previous scholars. A wide variety of evidence will be used in this study, ranging from literary sources to archaeological data. The paper will trace the historical development of these spectacles, from Republican displays staged in imitation of contemporary Greek events, to the beasthunts of the Byzantine empire. Another major focus of the thesis will be the infrastructure and organization behind Roman animal spectacles, in particular the methods by which the Romans captured and transported the large numbers of animals necessary for events staged throughout the empire. / Arts, Faculty of / Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of / Graduate

The double-pipe reed woodwind known as the aulos was the most pervasive instrument in ancient Greek life. Despite recent attention to affect and the senses and advancements in ancient musicology, there remains no comprehensive study of this cultural phenomenon. Bringing the burgeoning field of sound studies to bear on the diverse range of evidence, this dissertation offers the first cultural history of aulos performance, focusing on a crucial period of its activity spanning the sixth through fourth centuries BCE. I propose an interpretive model that works across textual and material sources to account for the ineffable, affective ways in which the instrument acts upon the embodied listener. When we consider the aulos as a sonic medium that works beyond the structural and semantic boundaries of music and language, we can identify how the instrument communicates across contexts through certain structures of feeling its sound. By exploring the world-building capacities of the instrument’s sound effects and harmonics, I chart the history of these embodied ways of knowing its sound. I argue that the aulos operates through a culturally conditioned interface with the body, exerting an agency that impacts social and civic identity, drives musical innovation, and poses a cultural threat to discursive ways of knowing and rational persuasion. The five chapters identify the interplay of tradition and innovation across the contexts of aulos performance, between musical and theatrical genres as well as civic practices involving corporate movement. Meanwhile, with the rise of prose, the emerging critical discourse on the aulos analyzes its effect on the body specifically and aims to expose how the listener is tricked into the “enchanting” soundworlds it constructs. This interdisciplinary media-based approach to ancient Greek performance thus presents a new register of meaning-making that articulates unexplored aspects of the artistic, literary, and philosophical works that preserve this culture.

This study examines the connection between architecture and economy in Mycenaean Greece; it is a deep investigation of economic theory and models of the Mycenaean economy, existing methods for the study of prehistoric architecture, and particular Mycenaean structures. Over the course of the study, I present current thinking on the Mycenaean economy and fundamentally rethink the concept of economic embeddedness and human agency. With a novel theoretical grounding, I present a methodology based in human action to study the intersection of architecture and the Mycenaean economy, and in three detailed case studies, I apply the methodology to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the harbor town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall. I argue that to advance the study of Mycenaean economy and theory, the concept of economic embeddedness, which posits that economic actions and decisions are bounded by larger social concerns, must be rethought. In its place, I offer a theory of complex embeddedness that envisions human action as fluid and cross-cutting traditionally circumscribed categories of economy, society, and polity. This foundation in human action with it links to agency theory helps to move the study of architecture away from the static sociopolitical meaning of the final built form and towards the human processes of construction. Under the guidance of this theory, I envision construction as a form of production in which individuals interact with one another and the material world to build a structure. I ultimately use the term architectural production to label this novel viewpoint. To study architectural production at a range where human actions and agency matter, I advance a methodology that draws together architectural energetics, chaîne opératoire, and tools from the construction management industry. I argue that architectural energetics offers a starting point for studying architectural production, but that existing applications of architectural energetics have placed too much weight on summed labor-costs and macroscale typologies. By reformulating architectural energetics with a focus on the chaîne opératoire, or operational sequence, and by using construction management tools to investigate the dynamic nature of the chaîne opératoire, I propose a method that builds on architectural energetics' basis in labor-costs to explore the temporal and spatial configuration of architectural production. With the method, I reconstruct and detail processes of architectural production, model the ordering of human-centric production tasks and patterns of labor organization, explore timeframes for the completion of structures under different conditions, and isolate how active human agents move through space and time during architectural production. I apply the method to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall. For each, I collate published data and field observations to recreate the structures in 3-D CAD models, profoundly contemplate the entire process of production from the planning stages to the finishing touches, investigate the spatiotemporal configuration of labor during production, and stress the plethora of human choices and actions that occurred in the production of these structures. Finally, I fold my study of each structure into larger topics that engage models of the Mycenaean economy, including decision making and group interactions during architectural production, the creation of architectural monumentality and power, and the administration and compensation of builders. I argue for a networked view of the Mycenaean economy that builds on close range analyses of human acts of production; the acts of architectural production that I stress in this study were a complex and integral part of this networked Mycenaean economy. Four supplementary PDF files are included with this study. They form part of the application of my methodology to the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the harbor town of Kalamianos in the Corinthia, and the Northeast Extension of Mycenae's fortification wall. The supplementary files (Supplements 1–4) are referenced in Chapter 7. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 28, 2016. / Architectural Energetics, Architecture, Economic Theory, Greek Bronze Age, Labor, Mycenaean / Includes bibliographical references. / Daniel J. Pullen, Professor Directing Dissertation; John O. Sobanjo, University Representative; Christopher A. Pfaff, Committee Member; James P. Sickinger, Committee Member.

Critics have long remarked on the differences between the Argonautic epics of Apollonius Rhodius and Valerius Flaccus, and have attempted to understand the latter’s reception of the former. This dissertation calls into question the narrative that Valerius rejected Apollonius' characterization of the hero Jason as defective and sought to recuperate it. Evidence such as each poet’s treatment of his literary predecessors, the semantics of key terms important to the genre and to the heroes themselves, and the political cultures in which the two epics were composed, suggests that in each epic the heroic protagonist Jason is put forth as the best of his peers, the Argonauts, and the one most suited to lead them. The differences between the two Jasons is best explained by a difference in literary trends and political realities between the Ptolemaic Kingdom of the 3rd century BCE and the Flavian Dynasty of the late 1st century CE. Contrary to scholarly depictions of Jason in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica as a "failed" hero, his characterization is an evolution of Homeric trends in a Ptolemaic Alexandrian context, including Hellenistic literary sensibilities and the ideology of kingship. Similarly, the Jason of Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica is best understood not as a rejection of Apollonius’ creation, but as an adaptation of it in light of post-Vergilian literary trends and the ideology of the early Flavian Dynasty, which seized power in a civil war. Therefore, both versions of the Argonautica depict Jason in a way that speaks to their respective eras’ understanding of leadership and what constitutes "the best man." / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Classics in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2016. / October 31, 2016. / Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, Flavian, Jason, Ptolemaic, Valerius Flaccus / Includes bibliographical references. / Francis Cairns, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Levenson, University Representative; Trevor Luke, Committee Member; Timothy Stover, Committee Member.