This research project takes a fresh look at the Neolithic archaeology of the Isle of Man, using that material to evaluate a number of themes in contemporary archaeology. The theme of personhood in prehistory is most central to the study. This project discusses the prevalent interpretative schemes which archaeologists use to understand prehistoric people, prehistoric bodies, and prehistoric social relationships. As such it joins with a number of current themes in archaeological interpretation, most notably; the role ofphenomenology in inferring past experience; the use of ethnographic analogy in understanding past and present ideas and experiences of the person and body; the impact of modernity in forming current ideas of the person (particularly the impact on archaeological thought); and the relationship between the material world, social activity and discourse, both in modernity and in prehistory. Two main types of theory are employed in this project. Both are geared towards understanding social relationships and the way that personhood is generated through activity. The first theory is a theory of performativity, adapted from the work of Judith Butler. The second is a relational approach to personhood, following the work of Marilyn Strathern and other social and cultural anthropologists. These approaches offer a critical basis for the re-consideration of past and present bodies, and past and present relations of personhood. They also provide the basis for reinterpreting past material culture, architecture and landscapes. The project situates archaeology as a product of different modern discourses, and argues that these have shaped the interpretation of past discourses. It sets out to deconstruct those present discourses, and re-evaluate the role of conflicting experiences of the self and world in the present. In this approach concepts of archaeological units; the house; the culture; the individual; the family; are all open to question. They are considered as types of metonym which condition archaeological interpretation. By refuting the authority of these metonyms, and by illustrating how they have become sedimented in archaeological discourse (specifically for the Neolithic on the Isle of Man), the project explores the possibilities for more context-specific interpretations. Finally, this thesis offers some new interpretations of Neolithic activity on the Isle of Man, interpretations which focus more on the social production of self and world than on capturing the 'meaning' of the past. These interpretations are not totalising, but partial, and seek to explore the possibility of conflict and subversion in Neolithic activities.

This thesis focuses on the traditional logboats of Coquí, an Afro-descendant community in the Pacific coast of Chocó, Colombia. It considers these boats as an entry point into the life of the community and explores the technological and functional aspects of the watercraft, their wider context, and related social practices. Based on a transdisciplinary approach, it draws on an ethnographic methodology to look at the question of whether and how the boats inform on the life of the community, their history, their identity and their maritime concerns. This thesis reflects upon the multiple ways in which people in Coquí relate to their boats and the many levels at which these boats operate. It demonstrates that the watercraft of the community of Coquí is significantly complex and holds a fundamental importance to their existence. The present study addresses the need of a comprehensive in-depth look at traditional boats in which the relationships between people and boats are as relevant as the pure technological and functional interests, dominant in the field of boat studies and maritime archaeology. It shows that ethnography is an effective methodology to unveil the richness of the materiality of social life, and the diversity of human engagements with the world.

Glycoscience is important in many areas such as human health, energy and material science. Glycans have been shown to be involved in the pathophysiology of almost every major disease. Additional glycan structure knowledge is required to help advance personal medicine, and pharmaceutical developments, among others. For glycoscience to advance there is a need for large quantities of well-defined glycans and have quick access to glycosyltransferases for manipulating glycan synthesis. Herein, we will cover our efforts on studying the substrate specificities of human glycosyltransferases such as FUT8 and Gn-T V, and their application on N-glycan synthesis. Complex asymmetric N-glycan isomer structures have been related to many diseases such as breast cancer, among others. Synthesis of complex asymmetric N-glycan isomer structures including: alpha-1,6 core-fucosylated, and tri-antennary structures can be achieved by taking advantage of the high specificity of glycosyltransferases that can work as unique catalyst to generate well-defined glycan structures.

This thesis is about family law under the Ben Ali dictatorship where the women's rights embodied in these laws constituted a cornerstone of the state's legitimacy. in 1956, Tunisia became the first Muslim country to reform Islamic family law radically, abolishing polygamy and granting women and men equal rights in divorce. Whether these laws have supported gender equality or not has been hotly contested. Based on fieldwork in a suburb of Greater Tunis and in a court (2007-2008) thesis provides an ethnographic account of the practice of marriage and divorce. From these dual perspectives it argues that ordinary ethics are an essential part of the law. The thesis begins by exploring the uncertainties that surround marriage in a lower-middle class neighbourhood. it then analyses some of the mechanisms through which the law is intimately intertwined with ordinary ethics, notably through an examination of the documentary practices of divorce files. This thesis argues that the connections between law and ethics generate radical uncertainties and anxieties. First, there is uncertainty as to whether a litigant can access justice in divorce. To access rights in divorce a litigant must strive to display highly gendered forms of ethical personhood. Rather than supporting gender equality the legal processes contribute to the homogenization of moral values at a national level as particular gender roles are debated and reinforced vial legal practice. Second, there is uncertainty as to the state's moral legitimacy as it is exposed to the moral scrutiny of its citizens through the operation of the law. The thesis argues that the politically charged setting of the court is the scene for a kind of extraordinary ethics, as divorce cases are a site where the morality of marriage and the morality of the state are simultaneously at stake.

This thesis is an anthropological investigation of the interconnections between personhood and place in rural northern Kyrgyzstan. It studies the way people negotiate and experience relations with others and with the places in which they live and work. It is based on 18 months of fieldwork carried out in Kochkor raion between June 2006 and August 2008. I look at how the interplay between conceptual forms and everyday practices constitute personhood. I show how both formal ways of reckoning kinship, such as recounting genealogies and tracing back seven generations of male ancestors, and everyday forms of socialising are both integral in what it means to be a person, and are flexible in their designation of persons of the same kind and persons that are different. I go on to show how place holds particular significance for the attribution and negotiation of personhood, but that this meaning is emergent and processual. Providing an historical overview of the linking of persons to places by successive bureaucratic structures, I highlight how understanding places as “cultured” or “pure” have important consequences for how people understand themselves and others as more or less “Kyrgyz”, more or less “modern”. I show how recent reworkings of the meaning of “lineage places” following privatisation and village resettlement have led to changing forms of personhood, shifting from state farm worker to independent farmer. Other kinds of places are also meaningful for personhood. I highlight how the home and the objects it contains are active in the negotiation of a daughter-in-law’s personhood. I examine everyday practices of caring for the home, as well as more unusual practices of building new kinds of homes. These practices are integral to varied personhoods such as being a village daughter-in-law, or seeing oneself as “modern”. These personhoods and relationships with place are subject to ongoing negotiation, and death and grief disrupt these connections. A focus on emotion both within ritual practice and during grief lived everyday enables a better understanding of how personhood emerges from intersubjective processes which involve negotiation, rejection and incorporation of social and political processes. A focus on the co-production of place and personhood allows us to see both as becoming meaningful through these interactions.

This thesis explores competing meanings of being a woman in Dakar, Senegal. Above all, it is concerned with the relationship between livelihoods – how ordinary Dakarois make ends meet – and women’s gendered identities. It explores the full spectrum of Dakar women’s economic activities, all the while keeping the definition of what, precisely, qualifies as ‘economic’ or as ‘work’ as open as possible. Distancing itself from approaches that privilege the sexual aspects of gender, this thesis asks what kinds of gendered economic identities emerge in the context of the various roles and relationships that constitute women’s everyday lives. What do women do that enables people in this society to get by and to secure their day-­‐to-­‐day needs? How are these activities experienced, and what kind of values are they imbued with? Based on three years’ fieldwork in low-­‐income neighbourhoods across the Dakar region, the thesis advances an ethnographic analysis of women’s roles as wives and girlfriends, sisters and sisters-­‐in-­‐law, daughters, mothers and grandmothers, and members of extended family and community networks. It explores women’s activities as dependents, consumers, providers and informal-­‐sector workers. Together, the chapters shed light on the complexities and contradictions involved in being a woman in this particular part of the world. Building on the ethnographic findings, this thesis argues that it is possible to identify two distinct, even competing conceptions of being a woman in Dakar. One of these can be framed in terms of ‘materialism’, the other around the emic concept of ‘mothering work’. Dakar women, this thesis suggests, draw on both in order to create, defend and challenge the meaning and the value of their everyday experiences.

In this thesis I describe the claims that a group of people living in rural Scotland make about maternal surrogacy. For them, surrogacy is a topical issue that provokes speculative ethical judgements. This is in a context in which they are building good lives, strongly informed by environmentalist 'ethical living' and local wildlife conservation. I describe the kinds of ideas they employ and reproduce in discussing the ethics of surrogacy to capture the nuanced judgements that go into ethical claim-making. I argue that, in order to understand these people's ideas about what is natural and what is moral, they should be considered along with their more ordinary ideas and practices. I describe how some of the same concepts they use to talk about surrogacy figure in their conceptions of goodness and what makes a good life, in order to both contextualise and extend their ideas about the ethics of surrogacy. Through ethnography of their everyday lives, I show the importance of effort and care in the making of relationships with other people, animals and the land and in fashioning an ethical subjectivity. I analyse the connections between nature, kinship and ethics in lives that are structured by efforts to protect the natural world, feel closer to other people and experience a fulfilling life. I examine the importance of choice and money in enabling these lives and raise questions about the location and status of transcendent values in contemporary Britain. I discuss the temporal orientation of these people in relation to the influence of environmentalist ideas of impending ecological crisis and consider how this links with their ideas about how to live in the present as well as how these connect up with their ideas about parenthood and kinship.

The thesis investigates the condition of slave descendants among the southern Betsileo of Madagascar. Unlike previous research, which has focused on the dependency of those slave descendants who stayed as share-croppers on their former masters’ land and on the discrimination against slave descent migrants, the present study focuses on a group of slave descendants, the Berosaiña, who own their land and have acquired autonomy and wealth. Based on fieldwork in a rural area south of Ambalavao, the thesis presents an ethnographic study of the ambivalent relations between the Berosaiña and their neighbours of free descent. It shows that the Berosaiña’s knowledge of local history and of their ancestor’s role in the region’s settlement is one of their key stakes in local politics, while the free descendants’ refusal to marry them is the most serious obstacle to their integration. A close study of slave descendants’ genealogies and of local marriage practices suggests that, although a few ‘unilateral’ marriages occurred, no ‘bilateral’ marriage between commoner descendants and the Berosaiña ever took place. After suggesting an explanation for the avoidance of marriage with the Berosaiña, the thesis proceeds by showing that the category ‘slaves’ is essentialized by commoner descendants. The essentialist construal of ‘slaves’, it is argued, is likely to have become entrenched only in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery, because the circumstances in which it occurred prevented a large number of freed slaves to be ritually cleansed and because a number of established cultural practices made it difficult for freed slaves to marry free people. Finally, the thesis analyses the peculiar predicament of the Berosaiña in light of the strict marriage avoidance observed by commoner descendants and of commoner descendants’ highly essentialized views about ‘slaves’.

The city of Glasgow, Scotland, is typically associated with violence, criminality, and aggression, and these negative associations impact on the social meaning of Glaswegian Vernacular as used by working-class adolescent males. There have been, however, no studies which have made a systematic attempt to uncover the role fine-grained phonetic variation plays in indexing these associations. Moreover, there have been no studies of Glaswegian which have examined locally constituted groups of adolescent male speakers, and how such speakers use a range of linguistic and social practices in their construction of particular social identities. This study is an ethnographically informed sociolinguistic account of Glaswegian Vernacular which examines the nexus of language, identity, and violence using data collected from a group of working-class adolescent males from a high school in the south side of the city between 2005 – 2008, and aims to uncover whether adolescent males who identified as ‘neds’ or who engaged in social practices considered ‘neddy’ have quantitative linguistic differences from those adolescent males who do not. Through the fine-grained phonetic analysis of the linguistic variables BIT, CAT and (TH), coupled with ethnographic observations, this thesis shows how an apparently homogenous group of speakers use linguistic and social resources to differentiate themselves from one another.

Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the British misunderstood African cultural practices and reported on those in derogatory terms. With other European nations they projected Africans as ‘savages’ without any cultural traditions and consistently devalued traditional African religions and dances. Those views have seeped into the psychology of the British mentality and specifically, may have negatively influenced African dance development in the UK. This thesis seeks to address those issues through a re-examination of the literature and a re-appraisal of Africa’s religions and dance forms. It will illustrate that in spite of he continuous attempts to decimate African cultural expression, Africa’s cultural practices survived and re-emerged in the Caribbean through slavery and through vibrate practice. The adaptation of the forms in their new environment, especially through adopting some aspects of Christian worship, nurtured alternative ways that later enabled the forms to find expression, as theatrical dance, in the UK. The thesis is informed by international field trips, through the use of video and Internet sources, from attendances at African and Caribbean cultural events, through a wide range of secondary sources and from interviews spanning over twelve years. It is presented in two main sections. section one includes the Introduction and chapters One and Two. The Introduction provides a backdrop of current issues in African dance development and chapters One and Two provide a framework of African cultural practice on the continent and in the Caribbean, indicating how European perceptions of the people and their practices skewed the truth. Chapters Three and Four provide a detailed account of African dance development over the past fifth years through the activities of performance companies and support agencies. Chapter Five investigates dance development in the UK, specifically focusing on the works of two London-based choreographers and exploring how their spiritually determines their practice.