The debate on Neanderthal social and symbolic capabilities is one of the fundamental issues of Palaeolithic archaeology, with the archaeological record suggesting that Neanderthals did not display the same range and variability of behaviours as anatomically modern humans (AMH). This lack of evidence has often been attributed to the cognitive superiority of AMH over Neanderthals. The reliance on the material record alone, however, neglects a range of non-material behaviours that are arguably of equal importance to understanding the cognitive abilities of this species, but which leave no archaeological traces. This thesis presents an alternative approach to the interpretation of Neanderthal social behaviour that is based on ethnographic modelling drawn from contemporary hunter-gatherers and applied to the archaeological records of Neanderthals and AMH living in Europe during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 (60-30ka). The aim of this thesis is to highlight Neanderthal behavioural responses to fluctuations in environmental productivity and to compare these to the behaviours of AMH in the earlier Upper Palaeolithic to determine if any significant differences existed between the two species. The thesis employs a range of ethnographic and archaeological data which relate to a range of material and non-material social and symbolic behavioural expressions, such a rites of passage, cooperative hunting, care for the elderly, and prestige hierarchies that are not typically inferred from the archaeological record. The ethnographic record allows for the quantification of such behaviours so that correlations can be made between social expressions (cohesion, control etc) that can then be inferred from the material record. Statistical tests, including General Linear Modelling, were employed to determine the robustness of these correlations. The ethnographic model was applied to the archaeological record of the Upper Palaeolithic prior to its being applied to the Neanderthal record of OIS-3 to determine the suitability of applying it to prehistoric contexts. Results show that both Neanderthals and AMH employed similar behavioural mechanisms for coping with resource stress in relation to social cohesion, though individual expressions varied between the two species depending on their environmental contexts. Analysis suggests that the Neanderthal capacity for spiritual and material expression was hindered by demographic and physiological constraints rather than any differences in cognitive capacity. Finally, analysis shows that Neanderthals employed optimal behavioural capacities throughout the Middle Palaeolithic and were a much more behaviourally variable hominid than previous interpretations of the archaeological record have suggested.

In the light of the Mission-Shaped Church report (2004) and the foundation of the joint Anglican/Methodist Fresh Expressions Initiative (2005), churches were encouraged to seek ‘fresh expressions of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church’. The ecclesial reality of four case studies of new forms of worshipping communities across Methodist Churches in the Liverpool District was examined and analysed in relation to the official statements of the Methodist Church and the Fresh Expressions Initiative, questioning the rhetoric of “church for the unchurched”. Operating at the interface of ethnography and ecclesiology, this thesis employed ethnographic and negotiated research methods in order to establish why, in an age of declining church attendance, people are choosing to join groups that are doing church differently. From the evidence, I draw out characteristics of hospitality, participation and flexibility indicative of a grassroots experience of church. The thesis discovered, through detailed ethnographic research the ecclesial reality of these new Methodist groups, and presents previously unpublished evidence from grassroots participants. In listening to the voices of participants and their experience the research challenges the narrow understanding of a ‘Mission-Shaped Church’ and considers whether the ecclesial reality of the grassroots groups in this study bring a broader and more nuanced understanding of new ecclesial realities to the Methodist Church and the Fresh Expressions Initiative.

This research explores the different forms of religious practice within a mosque in north London. It was built by one migrant group, the Guyanese, but the congregation includes those from different Muslim communities now living in the vicinity. These different communities have brought with them their own religious traditions. The ritual of Friday prayer brings this diverse group together as a congregation but the mosque is also a space for the communal life of the Guyanese and those who share their way of being Muslim, while globalised currents of thinking are apparent in the work of a Guyanese preacher who teaches an explicitly text based Islam in classes and lectures. My research examines the different ways in which Islam is present within these three domains and the relationship between them within the context of the mosque. The research contributes to the idea of ‘mundane Islam’ and ‘everyday religion’ through an exploration of the implicit, unsystematic way of being Muslim lived by the Guyanese and the everyday relational concerns and ethical commitments it carries. Though the classes offered the very different view of Islam to which the teacher was committed, one purified of cultural traditions, the women who attended them brought the complexity and ambiguity of the mundane back into the process of religious transmission.

Whilst young caregiving in Africa is not a new phenomenon, research exploring the circumstances and well-being of young carers in Africa is recent and remains scarce. However, similar to studies about orphaned children, the literature on young carers has a tendency to represent them as vulnerable and passive victims at risk of poor mental health, downplaying structural problems such as poverty and undermining the active participation of children and community members in building resilience. This thesis contributes to an already emerging critical trend that seeks to counterbalance this narrow focus by exploring how children, through an interaction with their social environment, cope with difficult circumstances. In doing so, the thesis addresses conceptual gaps in the coping literature and develops, through an iterative process, a social psychology of coping. This thesis draws on a participatory action research project that involved 48 children and 16 adults from two rural communities in the Bondo district of Kenya. Data were collected through multiple methods (daily diagrams, historical profiles, community mapping, photovoice, draw-and-write exercises, essay writing, individual interviews and group discussions) over a two-year period. The thesis provides an example of how research can be conducted through an intervention and in partnership with an NGO, illustrating how socio-ethical research can be conducted in a poor rural African setting. A thematic content analysis reveals the complex nature of caregiving and brings forward new empirical findings of young carers, including the continuity of their caregiving experiences, socio-cultural influences on caregiving as well as the kind of care they provide. The analysis also reveals some of the social and psychological coping strategies that the children draw upon. These include the children�s ability to mobilise social support, engage in income-generating activities and build positive identities based around a social recognition of their responsibilities. As a result of these empirical accounts, the thesis concludes that the ability of a child to cope is shaped by 1) the on-going negotiation between individual and community which shapes a person�s identity and access to local support networks and resources to tackle adversity, 2) the quality of the community they live in and its ability to share resources and 3) the children�s different abilities to negotiate community support. This social psychological conceptualisation of coping opens up new levels of analysis for research and intervention, which take account of the need to identify and bolster the social psychological resources evident within communities that can facilitate or hinder support. To strengthen the resilience and coping of young carers and their communities, the thesis points towards the viability of community-based capital cash transfer programmes and gives detail to the social psychological resources that can facilitate or hinder the building of orphan competent communities.

The dissertation is a study of the religious lives of Orthodox Christians in a semirural, coffee‐producing community on the shores of Lake Tana in northwest Ethiopia. Its thesis is that mediation in Ethiopian Orthodoxy – how things, substances, and people act as go‐betweens and enable connections between people and other people, the lived environment, saints, angels, and God – is characterised by an animating tension between commensality or shared substance, on the one hand, and hierarchical principles on the other. This tension pertains to long‐standing debates in the study of Christianity about the divide between the created world and the Kingdom of Heaven. Its archetype is the Eucharist, which entails full transubstantiation but is circumscribed by a series of purity regulations so rigorous as to make the Communion inaccessible to most people for most of their lives. These purity regulations, I argue, speak to an incommensurability between relations of human substance‐sharing, especially commensality and sexuality, and hierarchical relations between humans and divinity.

In recent years, flamenco has been consolidated as a prominent symbol of regional identity in Andalusia, the southernmost region of Spain. In the late 1970s, Spain began to decentralise into seventeen autonomous regions. As a result, each region has been encouraged to foreground its own culture vis-à-vis national culture. Although associated with Spain in general, flamenco has fulfilled the role of regional identity building in Andalusia. Increasingly, the Andalusian Government has focused attention on the development of flamenco within and outside of the region. In this thesis, I explore this relationship between flamenco and regional identity in Andalusia. In doing so, I draw upon the theoretical tenets of political geography. Through scholarly exchange, I argue that political geographers and ethnomusicologists can learn much about the relationship between music and regional identity. I use flamenco as a pertinent case study of this relationship in the European context. In particular, I discuss the role that governmental institutions play in the ‘regionalisation’ (Schrijver 2006) of flamenco (that is, the institutional development of flamenco as an ‘official’ symbol of regional identity). However, I argue that at times the regionalisation process can be disputed and subverted. Accordingly, I contend that regionalism (that is, the bottom-up identification with a region) in Andalusia is a fragmented concept. By examining the contexts, the discourses and the styles associated with flamenco, I present alternative readings of regionalism in Andalusia. Drawing upon virtual ethnography and traditional ethnography in Granada, I examine the reception and the production of flamenco at a local level as well as at a regional level. Arguably, some flamenco scholars present a somewhat rigid understanding of the relationship between flamenco and regional identity. By offering different readings of regionalism through flamenco, I reveal the complex and contested relationship between flamenco and identity in southern Spain.

The Cypro-Geometric period (CG, 1100-750 BC) is a transitional period between two distinct socio-political landscapes – those of the Late Bronze Age and the Cypro-Archaic. Traditionally, the CG has been studied as a coda to other periods, mainly due to the mortuary-based evidence being considered complex and unwieldy and of little value to studies of social and political development. In reality, the vast quantity of data has huge potential for any study of the Early Iron Age on Cyprus. Furthermore, a shift in academic interest in Cypriot Iron Age archaeology has resulted in a move away from discussions centering on the origins and modes of foreign interaction on Cyprus at the end of the Bronze Age, towards a focus on all aspects of the emergence of the social and political institutions of the Cypro-Archaic period. The CG played a seminal role in these developments, yet the mortuary evidence has remained scattered throughout journals and excavation reports, restricting their use and leading conclusions to be drawn from limited datasets. The aim of this study is to facilitate a reconsideration of the CG as a vibrant and pivotal phase in Cypriot protohistory. It brings together an unprecedented database containing details of 1406 tombs, including all those currently known to date to the CG period. Drawing on three specific case-study sites at Amathus, Palaepaphos and Salamis, and through the application of a strict methodological approach, the mortuary evidence is examined for indications of changing mortuary practices and portrayals of identity. Employing a complex combination of mortuary and identity theory the data are examined to reveal social and political changes underway in the Cypro-Geometric period. This fresh look at the CG mortuary record highlights the quantity, quality and potential of the extant data, and offers a reinterpretation of the socio-political development of the island at the start of the Iron Age.

OBJECTIVES My topic of research is a comparative study of ethnicity and (selected) health patterns among second generation Poles (and to a lesser extent, first generation Poles), looked at by means of two case studies, one in the UK and one in the USA. I examine the level of ethnicity (cultural) maintenance in a white - assumed assimilated - minority ethnic group in two specific geographic locations and therefore the context specific nature of ethnicity maintenance. I also examine whether it is possible to assess the impact of such maintenance on their personal health, well-being, and quality of life. METHODS My research design includes a (smaller, post WWII) selection of first generation UK and USA Polish respondents who act as point of reference, and allow me to define within this study, the parameters of the cultural 'nuances' in question. My design allows for the assessment of any evidence of ethnic self-identity and a common sub-cultural identity, as well as any differences between the two groups of respondents in relation to their respective degrees of co-operation, and accommodation problems, with host groups. The collection of data is operationalized via multiple methods, including questionnaires. I employ the use of qualitative, quantitative, and ethnographic elements, thus allowing for multidimensional analysis of selected issues. Comparisons are made with extant data from both the host ( indigenous) communities. RESULTS/CONCLUSION Empirical results bore out variations in the degree of maintained ethnic lifestyles, across a range of social groups. Some of the differences can be explained by the different environments (UK and USA), as well as the diasporic nature of the first generation's immigration experiences. Qualitative and ethnographic evidence was found to be crucial in explaining the various affective ethnic nuances that quantitative methods are unable to reveal, such as the pervasive impact that the first generation's diasporic experiences, as well as the nature of the Polish exiled community, have had on the second generation, both in the UK and the USA, and their respective qualities of life. This study has indicated that maintaining one's ethnic roots can for these individuals be just as problematic, although in differing ways, as for members of non-white ethnic minorities.

Gender-based harmful traditional practices (HTP) are prevalent in many countries across the world and have a severely negative impact on the physical and psychological health of women and girls. This thesis informs understanding of the factors that both perpetuate and inhibit resistance to HTPs. It further provides understanding of the psychological impact of female genital mutilation (FGM) informing both clinical and policy action. Chapter one is a critical review of both quantitative and qualitative literature exploring factors that perpetuate and facilitate resistance to HTPs. Following both database and manual searches, 21 studies were included and reviewed. Women who had experienced or carried out harmful traditional practices of son preference, FGM or child marriage, relate educational status, residential location, economic status, and family history of practising FGM as sociological facets that perpetuate HTPs. Negative health implications and female autonomy are considered factors that facilitated resistance to HTPs, and religion, tradition and patriarchy serve as control mechanisms that inhibit resistance to HTPs. Chapter two is a qualitative research study that explores women survivors’ experiences of FGM and the resultant psychological impact. The development of a theoretical model shows women related lack of knowledge, female identity, religion, culture, role of men, and deception as reasons for the practice of FGM. Experiencing FGM impacted on the physical, identity, emotional, and relational aspects of women’s lives. All of these factors, in addition to women’s resilience, were influenced by key stages of their life including menstruation, sexual intimacy, and having a child, as well as by fear and unmet needs due to insufficient service provision. Chapter three is a reflective account, exploring the challenges encountered throughout the research process, as well as reflecting on issues of counter-transference between the researcher and the participants, their impact, and their management.

The relationship that soil interred human bone has with the burial environment has implications for the survival of the organic and inorganic components, including collagen and DNA. The study of both the Chapel House Farm Medieval cemetery, Poulton, Cheshire, UK, and contemporary skeletal remains from cemeteries from Liverpool, U.K. provides new data into the environmental conditions that human bone encounters in the burial environment that are either conducive to preservation or result in complete dissolution of both the organic and inorganic bone matrix. Medieval bones from Chapel House Farm cemetery were analysed to establish the relationship between the organic and inorganic matrix of preserved human bone, and the interaction these had with their burial environment. The use of FTIR and XRF techniques proved to be effective mechanisms in assessing the relationship between the organic and inorganic molecules extracted from the different types of Medieval bone to assess their preservation. These analytical methods were able to establish the degree of soil component intrusion (movement) into the bone, the collagen content, as well as the condition of the mineral matrix of soil interred Medieval bone to be quantified using 2 mg of bone, reducing the need to destroy precious human bone samples. The results from the study of both the Medieval preserved bones from Poulton and Modern contemporary dissolved human remains from Liverpool U.K., where the remains were known to have fully dissolved within 20-30 years post interment, found that the mobility of ions including: Ca, Fe, Mg, K, and P, out of the bone into the soil, does not happen at a constant or predictable rate, but is linked to the environmental soil conditions and burial dynamics. These include: hydrology, seasonal temperature, pH of the soil, burial depth as well as the initial health and age of the individual. Soil samples from two contemporary Liverpool cemeteries were taken from 14 single graves spanning seven time periods (2000- 1850AD) at four depths (0-110cm), along with control samples. They were subjected to X-ray Fluorescence semi-quantitative analysis. The results for the concentrations of five elements: Fe, Mg, Ca, P and K, were statistically tested for trends associated with interred dissolved human remains. The concentration of these ions remained at a relatively constant level in the top soil (0-50 cm) through time. The results demonstrated a clear negative correlation between the levels of Ca and Mg with time, and depth, as well as a significant difference between these components and the control samples. The levels of Fe and K, demonstrated significant trends through two time periods at 50-110 cm, with peaks during initial decomposition and the war years (70-90 years). P demonstrated peaks at 50 and 150 years post interment at all depths. There was a statistical difference in pH of the Liverpool cemetery soils in 50-110 cm depths, and a general increase in the pH from 5-7 in the cemetery soil with relation to time. The presence of ions including: Ca, Fe, Mg, K, and P, derived from human remains from both the preserved Medieval and dissolved contemporary cemeteries persisted in the soil decades after the initial bone dissolution, making this a potentially new technique to assist in the detection of older forensic and historical soil interred human remains; and in addition provides information on the rate of release through time of chemical elements from decomposing human skeletal material.