The thesis explores the relationship between politics of state and environmental governance in North-Eastern India.Foucault's idea of art of governmentality has been appled to understand the environmental conservation practices in India. / environmental governance in North-Eastern India

This thesis analyses the central role of agricultural labour in the construction of personhood, landscape and work in an Andean ayllu. It is an ethnographic study based on fieldwork in a small subsistence farming village in the highlands of Bolivia. In employing a practice‐led approach and emphasising everyday labour, ambiguity and the realities of history and political power play, rather than the ayllu’s ‘core characteristics’ of complementarity and communality, the thesis moves away from the structuralist approaches which have dominated this field of study. In this setting, agricultural activity, llank’ay, (to transform the land), fills and shapes the days and seasons throughout the year. Llank’ay goes beyond economistic definitions of ‘work’ to include leisure, politics and everyday practice: it is bound up with myths of cosmogony, notions of value, the power of the land and a basic belief in what it is to be a human. The thesis examines the importance of llank’ay through several prisms: the tasks of the agricultural year and how these are crucial to the development of personhood; the mediating role of llank’ay in claims to land and inter‐village relationships of reciprocity; the effects of Protestant conversion and the role of llank’ay in sustaining an animate landscape; the intersection of llank’ay with other forms of work; migration and the outcomes of discontinuing llank’ay. I conclude that in this ayllu the practice of agricultural activity transforms people and land, creates belonging and communality and shapes the local concept of what labour is. It in turn creates the structures and limits within which people and land can be transformed.

This work deals with "special" burials among the Anglo-Saxon and Slavs in the early medieval period. The individuals in these graves are frequently labelled as "deviant", "criminals", as "socially other". This dissertation aims to focus more on the possible danger which "special" individuals represented for their communities after their death and on the possibility that the “special” burials were those of potential revenants or vampires. The introduction begins with a brief sketch of the evolution of approaches to burial by archaeologists and historians writing in English. It goes on to argue that “deviant burial” is not a self-explanatory category, but can be applied to a variety of very different inhumations. It suggests it might be better termed “special’ burial or the burial of the “special’ dead and formed part of regular inhumation practice; and it argues that the best way to understand these practices is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural framework. In particular, it discusses the possible insights offered by the development of the cognitive study of religion and belief, with particular reference to death and burial practices and introduces a “theoretical alternative model” for accessing how the deceased was treated from corpse to the grave. Chapter 1 examines Anglo-Saxon "special" burials, focusing on selected cemeteries where we can observe multiple occurrences of "special" burials or the employment of several "special" practices in one locality. These will first be analyzed with regard to the location of deposition and secondly compared within the wider framework of Anglo-Saxon "special" burial practices. Comparison with "special" funerary rites recorded elsewhere in the world by anthropologists will lead to the proposal of an alternative approach to some of recent and current interpretations of these practices. Chapter 2 focuses on Slavic archaeological material represented by the "special" graves excavated in Slovakia and the Czech Republic: both burials from cemeteries and also a group of individuals deposited in a range of objects found during excavation of Slavic settlements - in grain silos, wells or pits. As with Anglo-Saxon graves, the Slavic "special" burials are analyzed from the point of view of location and then in more global context of Slavic society. The possible interpretations of these findings are discussed. Chapter 3 focuses on the primary sources and their descriptions of "pagan" funerary rituals. It charts shifts in ideas and attitudes towards "special" funeral practices ranging from descriptions of these "pagan" practices, through efforts to delimit and penalize them in the law codes, to narratives of revenant sightings and descriptions of how to recognize and destroy them. This chapter will indicate some of the theories and new approaches proposed in the thesis. The concluding chapter brings these strands together. In particular, it discusses the possible insights offered by the development of the cognitive study of religion and belief, with particular reference to death and burial practices. It examines the changing patterns of religion - from traditional or "pagan" to Christianity – and the ways in which this change influenced both "special" burial practices and perceptions of vampires and revenants, with particular reference to the Christian doctrine of Purgatory. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the theories proposed on the basis of the material collected in this work and reference to corresponding interpretative shifts in present day archaeology and history.

By the end of the Seventeenth century, when the Dutch settlement at the Cape was already firmly established, and the foundation had thus been laid for the present political dominance of the white man in the country, Africa south of the Kunene Okavango and Zambesi Rivers was inhabited by a considerate. number of different native peoples On the basis of racial, linguistic and cultural distinction, these can all be classified into four main stocks, commonly known as the Bushmen, the Hottentots, the Bergdama and the Bantu respectively. The Bushmen are a short, brownish-yellow people, with certain peculiar and racial characteristics, they all speak languages of a uniform, well-defined and easily recognizable type, phonetically remarkable especially for the great prevalence of click consonant; and they practice neither agriculture nor pastoralism, but live in small separate commutative which lead a nomadic hunting and collecting existence.

The aim of the research is to analyze the ways in which the cultural meanings of professional sport associated with gender, ethnicity, and age are changing in the U.K. and the U.S. in the context of international social processes. This study contributes to the examination of mediated sport, and therefore, wider sporting and social processes, in several ways. It assesses mediated sport discourses as reproducing existing power relations as arranged around the social categories of gender and ethnicity. It acknowledges hegemonic masculinity remains as a useful concept for understanding the construction of gender, specifically within mediated sport. Elements of hegemonic, and therefore subordinate, masculinity are demonstrating nuanced changes. Discourses relating to media coverage of large-scale sporting events further emphasize the divisions and are implicated as resources for difference making between individuals and groups based on ethnic, ‘racialized,’ and national identities. Finally, this study offers an initial exploration of mediated sport and age. Here mediated sport discourses build a system of values and definitions related to cultural understandings of the body, social interaction, and behavioural convention; this establishes what the researcher has termed an ‘age complex’ derived from mediated sport discourses.

This thesis explores the place of the Bondo secret society, whose precondition for membership is female genital cutting (FGC), in Sierra Leone’s post-war politics. The Bondo society is considered a repository of gendered knowledge that bestows members with significant forms of power in the local social context. Members, especially Bondo society leaders, are dedicated to the continued practice of FGC even amidst calls for its eradication. The Bondo is much sought after and overwhelmingly supported by the political elite due to the role it plays in ordering community life and its position as the depository of cultural repertoires (Swidler, 2001:24). Most women gravitate towards the Bondo who also use it to shape and reshape their identity. For example, as part of post war recovery, I argue, the Bondo was employed by political actors to legitimate and extend the hegemony of political movements. This analysis, therefore, examines the complicated interplay of power between politicians and the Bondo society members in the context of an international outcry against the practice of FGC. The thesis argues that the Bondo society leaders are keen to maintain the status quo because of the forms of power accessible to them in the local socio-economic and political context. Faced with an over-arching discourse of eradication and change concerning the FGC procedure, the Bondo society has in turn fashioned a counter-discourse framed in terms of “defending traditional culture” to forestall changes that could affect the “privileges” they access. I explore the tensions of this situation in this thesis. That is, on the one hand, the tension brought about by opposition between the FGC reform agenda and the Bondo society members’ attempts to resist change in the ritual practice. On the other hand, I am concerned with the tension in the patronage they enjoy from politicians who are caught up in a double bind situation: they simultaneously need support from Bondo members but are, at the same time, reliant on international development aid. In exploring power from below, I examine Bondo society’s community stock of knowledge and how this symbolic power is employed in Sierra Leonean politics. This does not lead to a vindication of FGC but underscores the complex social, economic and political meanings embedded in the Bondo and in discourses of power in Sierra Leone. The thesis points out that eradication advocates need to take account of the various dimensions of the Bondo society’s embeddedness in relation to both state and society.

Since 2000, Glasgow has received thousands of asylum seekers, forcibly dispersed to the city through the implementation of the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act. Over the years, many of those individuals have organised into what have gone on to become formally constituted voluntary associations. This thesis explores the social meanings and lived realities of association life, and the nature of associational practices, as they emerge and develop over time amongst dispersed African asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow. Based upon fieldwork undertaken over a twenty-six month period involving participant-observation, the thesis locates members’ micro-level understandings, experiences, and definitions of associational life within the wider macro context of broader political, social and cultural change. In so doing, the thesis analyses the complex and differentiated ways in which associational lives are experienced, and explores their intersection with a wide range of collective and individual identities beyond those connected to migrant status and ‘refugeeness’. The thesis thus seeks to challenge dominant definitions of associational forms as ‘refugee community organisations’, arguing that these contribute to constraining groups within fixed boundaries, and to perpetuating their position as an ‘unsettled’ population. Moreover, it is argued that the focus on ‘refugeeness’ fails to attend to the combination of internal and external factors affecting association emergence and continuity. Combining perspectives from social theory on migrant and minority associations and social movements with an anthropological approach that integrates internal processes with external forces, the thesis presents nuanced accounts of solidarity and struggle within groups. In contrast to representations that construct asylum seeker and refugee-led associations as fixed in time and space and defined by migrant status, this thesis argues for an understanding of group life that is sensitive to the fluidity of social relations in multiple social contexts which change and evolve over time. This requires an analysis of both the conditions that encourage the founding of groups and of the factors which support or inhibit their continued existence, and is crucial to ‘moving beyond refugeeness’.

Anthropometry can be used in certain circumstances to facilitate comparison of a photograph of a suspect with the potential offender portrayed in video surveillance crime footage. Anthropometry does not have the same success rate in identification as DNA or fingerprinting. However, these types of evidence are not always left at crime scenes. Sometimes the only evidence available relating to an offence is from surveillance videos and research was needed to lend credence to anthropometry as a viable method of identification. An alternative method of detecting individuals from surveillance video, morphology, was also investigated to determine its accuracy in confirming the identity of individuals based on facial descriptions and for use as a comparison tool in forensic identification. Pilot Laboratory Study: A number of different techniques are employed in facial image comparison of living persons. In this study, the effect of rotation on angles and proportions between selected facial landmarks is evaluated as a first step to assess whether facial anthropometry could be usefully applied to facial image comparison. The faces of five volunteers were photographed in the Frankfort plane at different angles of rotation from 0º (frontal) to 90º (side view), rotating every 10º both clockwise and counter-clockwise. Four landmarks were used: right and left ectocanthions, nasion, and stomion. The proportions of the measurements between these landmarks were calculated as well as the angles created by the lines connecting the same landmarks. The results show a consistent and predictable variation between the five subjects. With rotation, the greatest variation is seen where horizontal landmark connecting lines are combined with the ectocanthion/stomion or nasion/stomion lines. There is less variation in the proportions for vertical and diagonally orientated landmark connecting lines. In principle, the data from these empirical measurements could also be used to develop a photogrammetric model of the face which, if calibrated, could be used to correct anthropometric measurements for distortions caused by a camera angle which differs from the one specified in a protocol for facial comparison. The purpose of developing such a model would lie in its use to calculate correction factors to convert observed proportions and angles back to the full-face orientation values, which could then, for example, be used to search a database of the proportions. Investigation of Uncertainty of Anthropometric Measurements: The objective of this study was to estimate the uncertainty in the measurements of the chosen facial proportions caused by landmark placement and by operators taking photographs, including the uncertainty contributions resulting from different people performing these tasks. The aim of this was to simulate effects found in the real world, as there would be different operators both placing landmarks and taking suspect photographs in various police departments. In addition, this study was completed in order to address variables encountered in the Pilot Laboratory Study that occurred as a result of the experimental set up. The first section of the study reviewed the errors involved in measuring facial proportions as a result of variations in landmark placement. Intra and inter-operator studies in landmark placement were conducted and as expected the average and range of coefficients of variation for the set of proportions were larger in the inter-operator error than that obtained in the intra-operator error. The second section of the study reviewed the errors in measuring facial proportions as a result of the process of taking photographs. The lowest variation in facial measurements was seen in the series of photographs taken of a single subject by a single operator and in general, the lowest variation in facial measurements was seen at 45° and the highest variation at 20°. The contributions of errors from landmark placement and photography were determined to produce an overall estimated uncertainty of 5%. When a comparison of 2D images is conducted in this manner this estimation of uncertainty should be taken into account. Anthropometry Study: An existing database of video and photograhic images was examined, which had previously been used in a psychological research project with the aim to test the hypothesis: “Using a comparison of anthropometric facial proportions, it is possible to discriminate between individuals of two samples.” Material avaliable consisted of 80 video (Sample 1) and 119 photograhic (Sample 2) images and were of high resolution, though taken with different cameras. A set of 37 anthropometric landmarks were placed measuring 59 proportions to conduct within sample and between sample comparisons using the following calculations; mean absolute value between proportions, Eulcidean distance and Cosine θ distance between proportions. First, the statistics of the two samples were examined to determine which calculation best ascertained if there were any differences between faces which fall under the same conditions. Subsequent to a between sample, the removal of up to 50% of the lowest variant proportions along with the determination of a subsample of faces requiring human verification were tested. Relative frequency distribution histograms were created from the data and the normal histogram curves of true positive and true negative faces were superimposed to determine their separation rate and how likley it may be to mix up the two categories of faces. Presented results showed that the Cosine θ distance equation using Z-normalized values was the preferred equation because it achieved the largest separation between true positive and true negative faces. Results also indicated that there was no benefit to removing up to 50% of the lowest variant proportions in the comparison of Sample 1 against Sample 2. Finally, applying the Cosine θ distance equation allowed a decrease to five database images to be verified by a human in approximately 75% of the cases tested. Morphology study: A morphological analysis was conducted on high resolution images and although highly relevant to the process of facial identification did not contribute to the continuity of the thesis and thus was included as an Appendix. The morphological analysis was performed on a total of 199 images: 119 photographs and 80 images from video using a checklist of 20 facial characteristics. Each facial characteristic had numerous choices in which it could be described. Once the analysis on all 199 images was carried out, a comparison was conducted between each video (unknown) image and the database of 199 (known) images. In the research conducted, only 2.5% of the comparisons showed a true positive match between video and photograph with zero false positives in the group. Subsequent to analysis it was determined not possible to differentiate between individuals, however, when looking directly at the individuals’ photographs, it is clear that there were differentiating characteristics amongst them. Conclusions: After embarking upon a series of anthropometrical investigations using high resolution images to compare video images with photographic images, it was concluded that anthropometry, when used as a comparison method of identification, does not generate the results necessary for use as evidence in a court of law. Identifying individuals based on a morphological analysis of a check list of features alone also did not result in clear consistent identifications. If descriptions of facial characteristics are to be fully utilized, a side by side comparison is likely to be less subjective. This outcome was as expected and provides additional insights into forensic morphological research.

This thesis seeks to assess the relevance of existing theories about the origins of nationalism and investigate more specifically the claim that nationalism is rooted in ethnicity. It does so by examining the cases of Eritrea and Somaliland, which proclaimed their independence in May 1991 after seceding from the states to which they were formerly united. Having explained in the introduction why International Relations needs to take a closer look at the causes of nationalism, the second chapter proceeds to review some of the main theories about the origins of nationalism. It retraces the history of the primordialist-modernist debate, discusses the main contentions of the ethnonationalist approach and presents some of the factors singled-out by recent scholarship as propitious for the emergence of nationalism. Given that most of the theories about the origins of nationalism presented in chapter two centre on Europe, chapter three surveys the literature on the rise of nationalism in Africa i_n order to determine whether any additional factors need to be considered before analysing Eritrea and Somaliland. Chapter three also includes a discussion of the anthropological literature on ethnicity in Africa and questions the ethnonationalist claim that ethnic groups are pre-modern. Using as a framework the factors identified previously, chapter four offers a historical account of the emergence of nationalism in Eritrea. Chapter five does the same for the case of Somaliland. As the analysis provided in chapters four and five illustrate, the claim that nationalism and secession have ethnic roots is not empirically substantiated by the cases of Eritrea and Somaliland. The thesis concludes by discussing the practical implications of these fmdings with regard to the right of secession and proposals for boundary adjustment in Africa. It also highlights the ways International Relations may contribute to our understanding of the causes of nationalism.

This thesis describes a new approach tor investigating cairns, stone enclosures, stone alignments and other small archaeological features found in the deserts around the Egyptian Nile valley. Investigation of these features has previously been restricted by their ephemeral nature, damage from modern development and the limited artefactual, epigraphic or archaeological evidence associated with them. This research focuses on a case study of eight cairns and adjacent courts at the Middle Kingdom carnelian mine of Stelae Ridge in the Gebel el-Asr quarries in southern Egypt. While accepting previous interpretations of the cairn-courts as ritual structures created for the worship of local divinities, this research sought a fuller interpretation of the site in its landscape context and a more nuanced understanding of the structures, their chronological development and the decisions which governed their location and layout. This was achieved through systematic visibility analysis of the eight cairn-courts with geographic information system (GIS) software, which provided new data concerning the patterns of visibility associated with the structures. Interpretation of these patterns in the context of the archaeological and textual evidence from the cairn-courts, practical experience of visibility at the site and evidence from the wider cultural context provided a new and more detailed understanding of the site. Stelae Ridge was chosen because cairns upon it made highly visible landmarks, particularly for people travelling south towards the other sites in the Gebel el-Asr gneiss quarrying region. Initially practical, the Stelae Ridge cairns also developed a ritual function, creating tension between the highly visible cairns and the secluded ritual courts, and suggesting that the cairn-building process became ritualised. By the end of the cairn-building period, in the reign of Amenemhat III, new cairns were constructed in less visible positions, suggesting that the ritual aspects of the cairn-courts had largely subsumed their earlier practical function as landmarks. This type of GIS research has never been undertaken on Egyptian archaeological sites and previous interpretations of visibility in Egyptian contexts have been limited. The detailed interpretation of the Stelae Ridge cairn-courts achieved here, shows that the technology and approach applied to this research can make a meaningful contribution to the investigation of other similar non-formal structures, and at Egyptian sites in general. It also reveals that GIS visibility analysis can answer relevant archaeological questions, when employed as a tool for data generation and properly contextualised with other evidence from the site.