No description available.

This dissertation presents the results of an ethnoarchaeological study of Kaqchikel Maya ceremonies in the southwestern highlands of Guatemala. The Maya view the Earth as being animate and sacred. Within this earthscape exist places that are especially alive and powerful. These are sacred earthmarks. Ceremonies are performed at these locations to communicate with this animate world as well as provide the maintenance necessary to keep the relationship between the natural and supernatural in balance. These special places can be various geographic locations including caves, rockshelters, mountain tops, boulders, cliffs, rivers, and archaeological sites. Inquiries into Maya cosmology show that the earth is of central importance and questions assumptions concerning the multi level worldview of sky, earth, and underworld. Furthermore, this work challenges the long tradition among Maya researchers of associating caves with the underworld. Data for this dissertation was gathered over eight seasons of fieldwork that included visiting over 65 sites. At each site a ceremony was performed by a ritual specialist; the author directly participated in the majority of these ceremonies. Theoretically, the data and insights are used as a basis for constructing ethnographic models used as analogs in the interpretation and reconstruction of pre-contact ritual contexts, especially those found in caves. This research found that four phases were observed as part of the ceremonial process. These phases include a consultation phase, a preparation phase, a communication phase, and a termination phase. Of the various materials utilized many had pre-contact antecedents. Discussions are included on the use of brooms, sticks or staffs, and torches by the pre-contact and contemporary Maya. The study further documented that sacred sites are dynamic, constantly changing spaces often modified in the process of use. Altars are assembled, disassembled, and/or relocated. Sweeping, or altar activation, affects the depositional nature of these sites. Offerings are constructed at these sites utilizing a variety of materials to "feed" the ancestors and spiritual guardians found at these sacred portals. Numerous materials are used in a ceremonial offering for consumption. Materials used include: colored candles, numerous types of resin-based incense, sugar, chocolate, cigars, breads, herbs, flowers, perfumed liquids, and liquor. / text

This ethnographic study investigates the frequency of use of the Navajo Blessingway ceremony during pregnancy by Navajo women in the Fort Defiance Service Unit of Indian Health Service. Through interviews with postpartum women and community members it was found that approximately 14% of the Navajo women at this hospital had a Blessingway ceremony during their current pregnancy. The data indicate that contemporary usage of the Blessingway ceremony is much less frequent than with previous generations. Factors contributing to this decline include a: decrease in the use of Navajo language, decreased number of practicing medicine men, increased reliance on Christian religions practices, influence of Western education and health care practices and changing socioeconomic conditions. The most significant factor in encouraging pregnant women to use this beneficial ceremony was the influence of the extended family.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

A nossa pesquisa buscou compreender as representações sociais dos Taurepang na sua vivência religiosa e também as suas relações com o Ambiente, desde seus tempos primórdios até a atualidade. Seus antepassados conhecidos como os Caribes ou Caribenhos; um resumo de sua história, suas conquistas, pois no passado os Caribenhos eram chamados de guerreiros e defensores da Ameríndia. A pesquisa inicial foi bibliográfica e teve como objetivo aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre a vida dos Taurepang relacionados à sua religiosidade e as relações com o Ambiente. Por meio de literatura específica, entrevistas e pesquisa de campo aprofundaram os conhecimentos sobre os Taurepang. A pesquisa está voltada para uma parte da etnia Taurepang que se tornou Adventista do Sétimo Dia, seus novos conceitos sobre o Ambiente, o surgimento da Maloca Sorocaima, suas representações sociais religiosas pautadas na nova religião, sua maneira nova de cultuar a Deus e seus novos conceitos sobre a preservação do Ambiente. Os estudos históricos e sócios antropológicos de manifestações religiosas no seu grande embasamento sobre a religiosidade Taurepang adventista através de pesquisas bibliográficas e entrevistas nos proporcionaram um aprofundamento mais amplo sobre a relação entre o Ambiente e os Taurepang Adventistas do Sétimo Dia em Sorocaima. Procuramos evidenciar nesse estudo a cosmovisão dos Taurepang, suas convicções peculiares sobre sua religiosidade na Maloca Sorocaima, assim também como seus novos conceitos Ambientais. / Our research aims to understand the social representations of Taurepang in their religious experience as well as its connexion with environment, from their early times to the present. His ancestors known as the Caribs or Caribbean; a summary of its history, its achievements, because in the past the Caribbean were called warriors and defenders of Amerindian. The initial research was literature and aimed to increase knowledge about the lives of Taurepang related to their religion and concerns with the environment. Through the literature, interviews and field research deepened the understanding of the Taurepang. The research is focused on a part of Taurepang ethnic group that became Seventh-day Adventist, their new concepts about the environment, the arising of Maloca Sorocaima, their religious social representations guided by the new religion, a new way to worship God and their new concepts about preserving the environment. Historical studies and anthropological members of religious manifestations in his great foundation on the Adventist Taurepang religiosity through literature searches and interviews provided us with a broader deepening of the relationship between the environment and the Seventh-day Adventists in Taurepang Sorocaima. We search to evidence in this study the worldview of Taurepang, their peculiar beliefs about their religiosity in Maloca Sorocaima, so as its new Environmental concepts.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:12:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 manaliel_pais_pereira.pdf: 1346977 bytes, checksum: 678bfffed6dfe580ce875a1400b09b30 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-06 / Our research aims to understand the social representations of Taurepang in their religious experience as well as its connexion with environment, from their early times to the present. His ancestors known as the Caribs or Caribbean; a summary of its history, its achievements, because in the past the Caribbean were called warriors and defenders of Amerindian. The initial research was literature and aimed to increase knowledge about the lives of Taurepang related to their religion and concerns with the environment. Through the literature, interviews and field research deepened the understanding of the Taurepang. The research is focused on a part of Taurepang ethnic group that became Seventh-day Adventist, their new concepts about the environment, the arising of Maloca Sorocaima, their religious social representations guided by the new religion, a new way to worship God and their new concepts about preserving the environment. Historical studies and anthropological members of religious manifestations in his great foundation on the Adventist Taurepang religiosity through literature searches and interviews provided us with a broader deepening of the relationship between the environment and the Seventh-day Adventists in Taurepang Sorocaima. We search to evidence in this study the worldview of Taurepang, their peculiar beliefs about their religiosity in Maloca Sorocaima, so as its new Environmental concepts. / A nossa pesquisa buscou compreender as representações sociais dos Taurepang na sua vivência religiosa e também as suas relações com o Ambiente, desde seus tempos primórdios até a atualidade. Seus antepassados conhecidos como os Caribes ou Caribenhos; um resumo de sua história, suas conquistas, pois no passado os Caribenhos eram chamados de guerreiros e defensores da Ameríndia. A pesquisa inicial foi bibliográfica e teve como objetivo aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre a vida dos Taurepang relacionados à sua religiosidade e as relações com o Ambiente. Por meio de literatura específica, entrevistas e pesquisa de campo aprofundaram os conhecimentos sobre os Taurepang. A pesquisa está voltada para uma parte da etnia Taurepang que se tornou Adventista do Sétimo Dia, seus novos conceitos sobre o Ambiente, o surgimento da Maloca Sorocaima, suas representações sociais religiosas pautadas na nova religião, sua maneira nova de cultuar a Deus e seus novos conceitos sobre a preservação do Ambiente. Os estudos históricos e sócios antropológicos de manifestações religiosas no seu grande embasamento sobre a religiosidade Taurepang adventista através de pesquisas bibliográficas e entrevistas nos proporcionaram um aprofundamento mais amplo sobre a relação entre o Ambiente e os Taurepang Adventistas do Sétimo Dia em Sorocaima. Procuramos evidenciar nesse estudo a cosmovisão dos Taurepang, suas convicções peculiares sobre sua religiosidade na Maloca Sorocaima, assim também como seus novos conceitos Ambientais.

No description available.