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This work is about the secular significance of religious expression in Spain. It is also primarily an ethnographic study of several aspects of everyday life in a Spanish town in 1981. There are four main aims: to explain the relationship between local customs and beliefs and nationally sanctioned symbol systems - in particular, but among others, the relationship between the 750 year old cult of the Cross of Caravaca and the Catholic Church and Spanish State; to describe the unique behaviour of the Fiesta of the Caballos del Vino, and to give an account of one instance of the popular Moors and Christians Fiesta; to describe and analyse the social structure of a provincial town; and to show how important symbols are affected by social change. The thesis is divided into five parts and a conclusion. The first part deals with the geographical setting and the relationship of this study of Caravaca to other anthropological studies undertaken in Spain. The second is concerned with the details of everyday life. It shows the relationship between town and countryside and between everyday economic and political concerns and everyday religious activities. The third part includes a description of the largest and most influential institution in the town - the Cofradia —- and a discussion of religious devotion and the cult of the Cross of Caravaca. The fourth, a description of the Fiestas held in honour of the Cross of Caravaca, and especially the Jubilee year of the 750th anniversary of the apparition of the Cross, the pageant of Moors and Christians, and the unique 'Horses of the Wine 1 competition, provides a contrast with more mundane activities. In the fifth part an examination of the Fiesta symbols contains a discussion of festival behaviour in relation to the everyday life of the town, and changes that have taken place and continue to take place. These sections are followed by a brief conclusion.

Thesis (M.Arch (Professional)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2016. / India is currently undergoing a rapid transformation economically, consciously and spatially. A layout of national infrastructure is happening at a pace which may be ungovernable, in its current state and India’s historical and natural landscapes are in jeopardy. One such ecological resource is the Ganga (colonialised as the Ganges), which through continued pollution is reaching a point of irreversible damage. There is, however, still hope. Accordingly, this thesis moves from an overview of India in the globalised world, through a rephrasing of how “development” is understood and manifests itself to the suggestion of an overall plan to understand and implement it in a way that is co-ordinated in intention but regionally and contextually responsive in application. Through Homi Bhabha’s theoretical perspective of cultural hybridisation the discourse of creating a new infrastructural identity for India is introduced. The current political focus on the Ganga, created by India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, through a renewed and trending agenda for cleaning the holy river, acts as a platform to explore the possibilities of infrastructure within this context . The Ganga River has been a religious symbol for millennia and the life force to approximately 500 million people. Through continued and increased pollution the quality of its water now radically exceeds the minimum requirements for safe drinking, bathing or even agricultural use. The Ganga River symbolises a cosmological relationship between people and the ecological environment, which requires that pollution be approached from a holistic viewpoint responding to the weight of its cultural value. This contextualized approach has the potential to become a catalyst for new innovative approaches to the integration of infrastructure throughout the river network . By using the political momentum created in the city, by the national project, this thesis is realised through a multiplicity of conflicting lenses inherent to Varanasi, one of India’s holiest cities. The city itself is growing economically but at the price of its prized ancient heritage. It possesses a cosmological value unparalleled by any other city in the country thus making it an emotionally powerful tool to mobilise a cleaning project for the river. If infrastructure is not implemented correctly the threat to the city’s unique character becomes real. This challenge created the Meta question for my research: How do you implement infrastructure into the sacred landscape? Through various degrees of research, both intuitive and informed, a system to clean water is designed in a way that truly integrates into a cultural landscape. The proposed design establishes itself as the first intervention in a national network for cleaning the River. By taking into account the infrastructural, ecological and sociological requirements of the city and its daily life the water purification sanctuary mediates the conflicting programmatic requirements between spirituality and science. Through an understanding that purity of water has a number of connotations within the site context the building utilises various treatment methods to reinforce the sanctity ABSTRACT of water through a hybrid mediation of heritage, nature, science and infrastructures (both vernacular and modern). This new typology enables the interaction of people with water cleaning infrastructure at a local scale and offers a way forward in redefining a national identity that is bound up in these currently conflicting imperatives.

by Cheris, Shun-ching Chan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-222). / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.ii / Abbreviations --- p.iii / Introduction --- p.1 / Part I - Contexts for the Present Study --- p.1 / Disenchantment - Reenchantment Dialogue --- p.2 / Reenchantment in Hong Kong? --- p.16 / Part II - Methodological Note --- p.23 / Chapters / Chapter I --- "Enchantment, Disenchantment and Reenchantment" --- p.30 / The Concept of Sacredness and Sacred Order --- p.30 / A Review of the Relation between Sacred Order and Secular Reality --- p.33 / Sacred Order in the Enchanted World --- p.37 / Sacred Order in the Disenchanted World --- p.41 / New Religious Movements as a Manifestation of Reenchantment? --- p.48 / Chapter II --- Epitome of the New Sacred Order - The Emergence and the Worldview of the Lingsu Exo-Esoterics (靈修顯密宗） --- p.56 / The Emergence and Development --- p.56 / The Sacred Worldview --- p.65 / Chapter III --- Epitome of the New Sacred Order - The Ethos of the Lingsu Exo-Esoterics (靈修顯密宗） --- p.79 / Sacred Symbols --- p.79 / Sacred and Secular Orders of Life --- p.100 / Chapter IV --- Constitution and Location of the New Sacred Order --- p.120 / Sacred Basis of the Secular Ethos : Making Sense of the Secular Mode of Life --- p.121 / Constitution of the New Sacredness --- p.131 / Man as God / Inner-Worldly Eclecticism / Location of the New Sacred Order --- p.136 / Subjectivization and Privatization of the Sacred Order / Demagicifying Religious Practices / Sacralization of Secular Way of Life / Chapter V --- Reconstitution of Sacred Order and Social Reality --- p.146 / Sacred Order as a Model of Social Reality --- p.147 / As a Model of Hierarchy / As a Model of Individualism and Intellectualism / "As a Model of Pluralism, Subjectivism and Relativism" / Aa a Model of Secularism and Materialism / Role of Rationality and Intellect in the Sacred Model / Sacred Order as a Model for Social Reality --- p.167 / As a Model for Social Maintenance / As a Model for Social Transformation / As a Drawback to Social Integration / Sacred Order and Social Reality --- p.184 / Conclusion --- p.184 / New Sacred Order as a Manifestation of Reenchantment --- p.189 / Reenchantment in Dialectical Sense --- p.193 / Implications --- p.198 / Appendix / Chapter I --- The Lingsu Disciples' Attitudes towards My Field Research --- p.201 / Chapter II --- Some Personal Details of the Lingsu Disciples --- p.203 / Bibliography --- p.212

Cheuk, Ka Kin. / Thesis submitted in: November 2008. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [238]-252). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / List of Figures --- p.vii / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Researches on South Asians in Hong Kong Studies --- p.1 / Indian Overseas and Transnational Network --- p.5 / The Sikhs in Local and Transnational Contexts --- p.10 / Methodology --- p.18 / Organization of the Thesis --- p.25 / Chapter 2. --- Who are the Sikhs? --- p.28 / The History of Sikhism: An Evolution of Sikh Descent --- p.28 / The Philosophical Doctrines and Its Contemporary Impact --- p.35 / Conclusion --- p.41 / Chapter 3. --- "Migration, Settlement, and Remigration" --- p.44 / Patterns of Sikh Migration to Hong Kong: An Overview --- p.44 / An Extensive Mobility of the Sikhs in Today´ةs Hong Kong --- p.54 / Conclusion --- p.77 / Chapter 4. --- Local Life (1): Communal Worship and Cultural Persistence --- p.80 / The Sikh Temple in Hong Kong: Fieldsite Specification --- p.81 / The Rhythm of Temple Activities --- p.87 / The Persistent Cultural Practices in the Sikh Temple --- p.97 / Conclusion --- p.106 / Chapter 5. --- Local Life (2): Temple and Social Relationships --- p.108 / Social Participations in the Sikh Temple --- p.109 / "Different Roles, Different Social Identities" --- p.116 / Forming Communities and Establishing Networks --- p.129 / Conclusion --- p.149 / Chapter 6. --- Individual Identity and Imposed Reality --- p.151 / Why Do You Wear a Turban? --- p.152 / Intermingling of Fervor and Ambivalence in the Sikh Identities --- p.161 / Interpersonal Relationships with the Hong Kong Chinese --- p.168 / Conclusion --- p.175 / Chapter 7. --- Transnational Connections --- p.178 / Rejuvenating the Joint Family Linkage --- p.180 / The Significance of the Joint Family in the Global Context --- p.197 / "Wedding, Land, and New Houses" --- p.210 / Conclusion --- p.220 / Chapter 8. --- Conclusion --- p.222 / How are they related? --- p.223 / Rethinking Transnational Anthropology and Multi-sited Ethnography --- p.228 / Afterthoughts on Studying the Sikhs in Hong Kong and Beyond --- p.231 / Appendix: Glossary --- p.233 / Bibliography --- p.237

蔣宏達. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 353-366). / Jiang Hongda.

Graduation date: 1997

This dissertation explores the role of popular religion in a transnational community by examining the performance of devotion to local patron saints, virgin mothers and sacred crosses. Annually in May, Empalme Escobedo, Guanajuato, Mexico celebrates San Isidro Labrador (the patron saint of farmers), Maria Auxiliadora (the patroness of railroad laborers) and the Santa Cruz de Picacho (Sacred Cross of Picacho). Following the celebrations many of the male participants in the fiestas travel to Texas to work in agriculture or the service industry. Consequently, devotion to the saint(s) moves with migrants back and forth across the Mexican-U.S. border. My thesis is that the force of devotion gives voice to the tension between the desire for solidarity (experienced through fiesta performance) and the erosion of the community by migration (experienced as absence and dissolution). What I call the force of devotion refers to the social processes, expressive culture, continuity and change that make up a transnational community's system of beliefs and practices and enable folks to understand, explain or cope with everyday life. The force of devotion is the key analytic frame through which I interpret the articulations of spirituality and popular religion, impermanence and fragmentation, absence and hope. The central questions posed in this dissertation emerge from the stories folks in Empalme Escobedo tell about their lives. Consultants talk about their devotion as an expression of faith, a necessary guidance through daily life and a symbol of hope. Tracking the force of devotion exposes social relationships, emotional and intimate experiences, desires and fears. Memory of and participation in the fiestas not only symbolize the force of devotion, but also serve as a connection to separated family members and place of origin. The everyday reality of the absence of loved ones and the fragmentation of the community as a result of migration amplifies the human desire for sociability and solidarity. The fiesta performance provides a space in which the consciousness of communal boundaries is heightened, thereby confirming and strengthening the experience of the social and the force of devotion. / text

This study examines the dynamics of German Turks' practices and life-styles and their relationship with Turkey in the context of the possibilities brought into their lives by their particular type of dislocation. Turkish migrants' "culture" and life-styles are explored in the context of their complex social space, rather than within a framework encapsulated in a reified ethnicity and/or immutable "Turkish culture". / Chapter I discusses concepts of ethnicity, culture and identity and presents a critical account of the literature on German Turks in this respect. Chapter II focuses on the ambiguities and insecurities of German Turks' legal, political and social status in both Turkey and Germany, and traces the consequences of these conditions on Turkish migrants' complex sense of place. The discussion of German Turks' "myths of return" in the context of their liminality and the impact these have on their self-image and their visions about their lives constitute the focus of chapters III and IV respectively. Chapter V explores the changing nature of Turkish migrants' interpersonal relationships. Chapter VI concentrates on the anomalies of the social space occupied by German Turks in German society and discusses their life-styles, practices and emergent cultural forms in the context of social mobility.

Ancestors represent a more enduring reality in the African world-view than deities, other non-human spirits, or amulets and charms. This thesis argues that many Baganda have beliefs in ancestors. Much of the knowledge on ancestors in Buganda is still confined to oral tradition. It can be useful to have some material on the ancestors in a written form. The time will come when those who know about the subject will die and much of the information will disappear with them for ever. Early European writers on Baganda people touched the topic of ancestors only briefly in their texts, without reaching great depth. The subject is given little space in their works. Hence, they missed some major and dynamic aspects of the Baganda religion and beliefs. Another point is that there are many changes that have taken place and influenced Baganda's beliefs since these writers produced their works. By highlighting those changes, this thesis tries to give a clear picture of what has transpired between the period when those early writers wrote and today (1996), as far as such beliefs are concerned. The early part of the thesis defines the word ancestor and other key concepts. It gives a general analysis of ancestors in Africa. Then it moves on to consider ancestors and the ancestral cult in Buganda. The thesis describes the earliest accounts of the cult of ancestors in the pre-colonial period after which it looks at ancestral observances. The effects of christianity, Islam, and political independence on Baganda ancestral beliefs are discussed. The final stage of the study covers my findings from fieldwork. This includes statements from some of the informants I interviewed during fieldwork and my own conclusions regarding change and the contemporary situation. In this study, I have reflected on the perspectives of recent academic findings in order to facilitate comprehensive descriptions, analysis, discussion and careful interpretation of the beliefs under investigation. The ability of the Baganda people to retain their traditional beliefs along with basic Christian, Muslim and modern beliefs has been described and discussed. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.