In my dissertation, I inquire into the phenomenon of monastic architecture and its plastic decoration in 16th century New Spain. The aim of this work is to present Mexican monasteries and their artistic significance. In my analysis, I build on the interpretation of monastic architecture from the perspective of early colonial society, I also reflect on the individual level, assessing its impact on the conquest and colonization of America. The methodology of this research project combines analysis of historical (e.g. study of historical sources) and art historical processes (iconological analysis of E. Panofsky) with analysis of anthropological concepts (e.g. rituals of transition of A. van Gennep, thick description of Cl. Geertz, concepts of liminality, structure and communitas of V. Turner). During my PhD studies, I conducted a field trip in Central Mexico (2013), supported by a grant from the Government of Mexico. I visited and documented one hundred and sixteen monasteries and the photographic documentation is the main empirical source of my analysis which further draws from the study of historical sources and academic literature. My research primarily focuses on three aspects: 1. the monastic architecture and art; 2. the role of the monastery in the process of European conquest and colonization...

This thesis is concerned with the world of The Handmaid's Tale (1985) and The Testaments (2019), works of Margaret Atwood. The dystopian theocratic totalitarian regime featured in these novels invites a socio-historical and anthropological analysis and interpretation from the perspective of the subjugated female characters. The theoretical part, introduced by an overview of Atwood's work, provides the reader with crucial information regarding the historical parallels which inspired the narrative, as well as a delimitation of relevant anthropological concepts, such as liminality or status reversal. Subsequently, using both the knowledge gathered in the theoretical and in Atwood's works, the rise of the fundamentalist cult of the Sons of Jacob and their project, the Republic of Gilead, is explained, and their ideology is uncovered in the first section of the practical part. Second part of the interpretation focuses on the position of women within the system that subjugates and oppresses them. The analysis is performed by the means of comparing and contrasting the ideal models of the positions of women as designed by the architects of the system with the actual application on the example of selected characters. The ultimate aims of this thesis are to prove the innate sexism and misogyny of the...

La perspective écologique qui s’est développée en criminologie adopte une notion implicite de la spatialité qui réduit l’environnement à un simple site géographique et exclut les rapports de pouvoir, les dynamiques sociales et culturelles ainsi que les valeurs qui y sont véhiculées. La présente étude interroge donc l’importance de l’espace géographique en criminologie. Elle se penche particulièrement sur le rôle de l’espace dans la (re)production et la régulation d’illégalismes et de déviance ludique ainsi que sur la production du savoir par le biais du concept de liminalité compris comme un espace-temps symbolique. Pour exposer le concept de liminalité, la thèse repose sur une ethnographie de 5 mois et demi réalisée dans deux villes balnéaires du Costa Rica. Elle montre comment les pratiques néolibérales de l’industrie touristique créent un espace liminaire qui répond aux quêtes d’exotisme, mais surtout de sens et d’authenticité recherchées par les touristes qui souhaitent rompre avec leur vie quotidienne. Alors qu’un pan de la littérature scientifique considère la liminalité comme un espace où les normes quotidiennes sont suspendues, cette thèse suggère que les touristes adhèrent aux normes présentes dans cet espace, soit à celles qui reposent spécifiquement sur la consommation d’un hédonisme agressif. Cela les mène à une consommation d’alcool et de drogues ainsi qu’à une sexualité dites hors de l’ordinaire. S’inscrivant dans une approche interdisciplinaire, cette étude emprunte, dans un premier temps, la notion d’espace à la géographie culturelle. Cette conception de l’espace qui comprend une dialectique idéaliste-matérialiste permet d’adopter une perspective analytique de développement inégal. Celle-ci permet de comprendre non seulement pourquoi certains endroits, lieux, régions et pays sont connus pour être des espaces dits liminaires, mais également en quoi les pratiques d’une économie capitaliste poussent ceux-ci à miser sur une image de liminalité pour (sur)vivre dans l’économie de marché. Inspirée dans un deuxième temps par l’anthropologie sociale, la thèse considère l’expérience touristique comme un rite de passage et propose que les touristes soient soumis.es à un dispositif symbolique qui les mène à performer in situ une identité de touriste. Cette performance, concrétisée par la consommation de transgressions, a pour conséquence de (re)produire l’espace liminaire. La thèse montre également que ce dispositif symbolique est un mécanisme de régulation non seulement des conduites, mais aussi des corps. Enfin, la thèse indique que le terrain de recherche est également une liminalité pour les chercheur.ses qui les affecte ainsi que le savoir produit. / Within the field of criminology, the ecological perspective argues for an implicit notion of spatiality, one which reduces the physical environment to nothing more than a basic geographical site, thereby excluding the power relationships, as well as the social and cultural dynamics, or values- and meaning-based dynamics, conveyed therein. As such, this study investigates the importance of geographical space in criminology. By employing the concept of liminality, defined as a symbolic space-time, this thesis also specifically studies the role space plays in the (re)production of both illegalisms and playful deviance, their respective regulation, as well as in the production of knowledge. In order to shed light on the liminality concept, this thesis draws on a five-and-a-half-month-long ethnography, carried out in two Costa Rican beach towns. It also illustrates how the tourism industry’s neoliberal practices produce a liminal space that caters to quests for the exoticism, and especially the hedonism and authenticity, sought by tourists seeking to escape the confines of their everyday lives. While a segment of the scientific literature views liminality as a space where everyday norms are suspended, this thesis instead suggests that tourists adhere to norms already present in such spaces, ones specifically based on an aggressive form of hedonism, which in turn result in “out of the ordinary” alcohol and drug consumption, as well as sexuality, on the part of tourists. In adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this study initially employs cultural geography’s notion of space. This conception of space, which employs an idealist-materialist dialectic, also allows for the adoption of an analytical perspective based on the concept of uneven development. It also makes it possible to understand not only why certain places, regions, and countries are recognized as being so-called liminal spaces, but also how the practices of a capitalist economy push them to rely on an image of liminality in order to survive and operate within the market economy. In additionally taking inspiration from social anthropology, this thesis views the touristic experience as a rite of passage, while also proposing that tourists are subjected to a symbolic device, which leads them to perform a site-specific tourist identity. This performance, given concrete form by the consumption of transgressions, results in the (re)production of the liminal space. The thesis also shows that this symbolic device is a regulating mechanism in regard to conducts, but additionally to bodies. Lastly, the thesis illustrates the ways in which the research field is also a liminality for researchers, one which affects them, as well as the knowledge produced therein.

Abstract in English and Zulu / This qualitative study set out to discover the lived experiences of South African transgender individuals within the liminal space of having been confirmed for gender affirming surgery, yet who have not completed their surgery. The aim included seeking out how participants’ wellbeing was affected by being within this liminal space. Six participants were recruited in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. Thematic analysis was used to derive themes from the transcripts. Themes included coming out; relationships; wellbeing; misgendering/misnaming; support; public and private medical care; and liminality. Recommendations for future studies are included, and recommendations on interventions and support are discussed. / Lolu cwaningo lohlobo lwekhethelo lenzelwe ukuthola noma ukubheka izinselelo zabantu abafuna ukushintsha ubulili babo baseNingizimu Afrika ababhekana nazo uma basohlelweni lokuyohlinzwa ngoDokotela ukuze bakhone ukushintsha ubulili babo. Inhloso yalolu cwaningo ukubheka ngqo kubantu abayihambile lena ndima ukuthi bahlukumezeka kanjani ngesikhathi basohlelweni lokuthi bashintshe ubulili babo. Abantu abayisithupha abazibandakanye nalolu cwaningo batholakale eGoli, ePitoli kanye naseKapa. Kusetshenziswe ucwaningo olubheka indikimba ukuze kutholwe izihloko ezivele embalweni osuselwe enkulumeni eqoshiweyo. Izihloko ezivelayo yilezi, ubudlelwano; impilo; ukubizwa ngobulili ongasibona/ukubizwa ngegama okungasilona elakho; ukwesekwa; usizo lwezibhedlela zikahulumeni nezibhedlela ezizimele; kanye nokuba sesimeni sokushintsha ubulili. Izincomo zocwaningo oluzayo zifakiwe nazo, kuphindwe kwakhulunywa noma kwabhekwa ukuthi kungangenelelwa kanjani ngosizo. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Souvent conceptualisée comme l’envers ou l’opposé de la raison, la folie, presque toujours synonyme de débordement, semble vouée à outrepasser toute limite définitoire ou conceptuelle posée par la pensée rationnelle. Cette pulsion de délimitation ou de classification inhérente à la rationalité, trouve dans le genre l’une de ses expressions les plus représentatives. Partant du constat que la folie ne cesse de transgresser les frontières traditionnelles de genre, ce travail étudie les liens entre les représentations littéraires de la maladie mentale et les questions de genre sexué (« gender ») comme littéraire, dans un corpus composé de romans, nouvelles et pièces de théâtre de six auteurs (Janet Frame, Jenny Diski, Sarah Kane, Ian McEwan, Anthony Neilson et Will Self), publiés entre 1951 et 2004. Animées par une dynamique toujours renouvelée de subversion des catégories établies, ces oeuvres invitent à une réflexion sur le rapport particulier qu’entretient la folie à la frontière, qui de simple ligne de démarcation ou de séparation se fait point de contact, puis espace à part entière. À travers leurs représentations de la folie, les récits étudiés privilégient le plus souvent, en effet, une esthétique et une épistémologie de l’entre. Cette réflexion s’articule donc principalement autour des images et des usages de la liminalité dans ces histoires de fous et de folles qui, au fil de leur (re)définition de l’appartenance et de l’identité des textes et des individus, esquissent une cartographie mobile des « contrées à venir » dont Deleuze et Guattari font la destination de toute écriture. / Traditionally conceptualised as the underside or the outside of reason, madness most often rhymes with excess; as such, it continually threatens to transgress all definitional or conceptual limits set by rational thought. Indeed, at the core of rationality is an impulse to delimit and classify, of which categories of genre and gender are quintessential examples. Starting from the observation that depicting madness regularly entails crossing, questioning and redefining genre and gender boundaries, this work investigates how literary representations of madness relate to the classification and conceptualisation of gender and genre in a selection of novels, short stories and plays by six different writers – Janet Frame, Jenny Diski, Sarah Kane, Ian McEwan, Anthony Neilson, and Will Self – published between 1951 and 2004. With the subversion of established categories as their central aim and dynamics, these works call for an exploration of the specific way in which depictions of madness, by using the border as one of their core motifs, impact the conceptualisation of borders. No longer a mere demarcation or dividing line between spaces, or simply a meeting point, the border becomes a full-blown space for individuals and texts to inhabit. Indeed, through their representations of madness, the borderline stories under study seem to embrace and promote both an aesthetics and an epistemology of the in-between. This work therefore focuses on the images and uses of liminality in stories of madmen and madwomen that, by remapping textual and sexual identities, have begun to chart these “lands to come” which, according to Deleuze and Guattari, are the true destination of all writing.

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Text in English with abstracts in English and isiZulu / This qualitative study set out to discover the lived experiences of South African transgender individuals within the liminal space of having been confirmed for gender affirming surgery, yet who have not completed their surgery. The aim included seeking out how participants’ wellbeing was affected by being within this liminal space. Six participants were recruited in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. Thematic analysis was used to derive themes from the transcripts. Themes included coming out; relationships; wellbeing; misgendering/misnaming; support; public and private medical care; and liminality. Recommendations for future studies are included, and recommendations on interventions and support are discussed. / Lolu cwaningo lohlobo lwekhethelo lenzelwe ukuthola noma ukubheka izinselelo zabantu abafuna ukushintsha ubulili babo baseNingizimu Afrika ababhekana nazo uma basohlelweni lokuyohlinzwa ngoDokotela ukuze bakhone ukushintsha ubulili babo. Inhloso yalolu cwaningo ukubheka ngqo kubantu abayihambile lena ndima ukuthi bahlukumezeka kanjani ngesikhathi basohlelweni lokuthi bashintshe ubulili babo. Abantu abayisithupha abazibandakanye nalolu cwaningo batholakale eGoli, ePitoli kanye naseKapa. Kusetshenziswe ucwaningo olubheka indikimba ukuze kutholwe izihloko ezivele embalweni osuselwe enkulumeni eqoshiweyo. Izihloko ezivelayo yilezi, ubudlelwano; impilo; ukubizwa ngobulili ongasibona/ukubizwa ngegama okungasilona elakho; ukwesekwa; usizo lwezibhedlela zikahulumeni nezibhedlela ezizimele; kanye nokuba sesimeni sokushintsha ubulili. Izincomo zocwaningo oluzayo zifakiwe nazo, kuphindwe kwakhulunywa noma kwabhekwa ukuthi kungangenelelwa kanjani ngosizo. / M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / Psychology

薩爾曼•魯希迪的《摩爾人的最後嘆息》運用想像與史實描繪出一個印度家族的故事。這個四代家族所經歷的時間橫跨整個二十世紀，一般說來在這個世紀前半部分大多數國家經歷了殖民統治與帝國主義，而在後半部分則面臨去殖民與國家主義的風潮。因此，書中論及的這些殖民與後殖民的經驗也引發了一些重要的議題，像是混雜、多元文化，和國家主義。霍米•巴巴提出‘閾限空間’這個概念有助於對這本小說做深入的評價與賞析，特別是能促進對以上三個議題更深入而具體的認知。霍米•巴巴將許多概念納入‘閾限空間’這個總括性術語的討論範圍，因此本論文將從中擷取三個概念來論述這本小說，分別是混雜、文化差異、及國家意識。 本論文的導論先闡釋霍米•巴巴‘閾限空間’這個概念並且發掘魯希迪這本小說中許多重要的後殖民議題。這些議題與‘閾限空間’ 這個概念的關係密不可分，因此這個概念所延伸論及的理論便可用於理解並賞析這本小說。接下來的三章將分別以混雜、文化差異、及國家意識來發掘並建立《摩爾人的最後嘆息》與‘閾限空間’這概念之間的關係。第二章將藉由霍米•巴巴對殖民者與被殖民者之間的矛盾關係的論述進而深入理解小說中意欲呈現的殖民混雜與後殖民混雜。這種矛盾的關係理論上與他者化的過程有關聯，在這過程中身分認同與主體化不論是在後殖民理論還是此本小說中都是值得商榷的議題。第三章利用霍米•巴巴的‘文化差異’來重新檢視並且重新定義所謂的多元文化。魯希迪在小說中巧妙地將現在的印度重疊在過去由摩爾人統治的西班牙之上，這種後殖民的羊皮紙影像便可藉由文化差異與多元文化的概念得到更具體的意義。此外，閾限空間也是一種不同文化的接觸地帶，這樣的中介地域也有助於理解魯希迪在流行文化與高等文化間所採的折衷主義。第四章則著重於探討霍米•巴巴如何發展閾限空間與國家意識的理論關係，還有國家與敘事之間的關係。此章也將利用國家與敘事的關係來理解魯希迪是如何在這本小說中運用許多文學技巧在小說世界中重構國家形象，尤其是文本互涉的材料與歷史的指涉這樣的技巧。 最後的總論將重申在本論文中提及的一些重要的論點，藉由重申這些論點來總結論文提及的一些重要概念的大意，並且讓魯希迪的《摩爾人的最後嘆息》與巴巴的‘閾限空間’這個文本與理論相互闡釋並佐證的關係更為清楚。 / Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh delineates, fictively and historically, a family saga in India. The four-generation family approximately spans the twentieth century that, generally speaking, has gone through colonization and imperialism in the first half as well as de-colonization and nationalism in the second half. Accordingly, they bring forth a few significant issues, such as hybridity, multiculturalism, and nationalism. Homi Bhabha’s idea of ‘liminal space’ is conducive to the evaluation of the novel, and expressly to the discussion of the above three concepts in a more specific way. He subsumes a lot of ideas under the umbrella term ‘liminal space’, so this thesis is to extract three ideas—hybridity, cultural difference, and nationness—to elaborate on the novel. The introductory chapter expounds Bhabha’s idea of ‘liminal space’ and also explores a few post-colonial issues in the novel. The issues in question are related to Bhabha’s idea of ‘liminal space’, from which some key ideas are derived so as to appreciate the fictional world Rushdie constructs in the novel. The following three chapters are respectively based on the three liminality-related ideas, whereby to find the relation of the novel with Bhabha’s ‘liminal space’. The second chapter is to obtain a deeper apprehension of colonial and post-colonial hybridity through Bhabha’s argumentation concerning the ambivalent relationship between colonizer and colonized. The ambivalent relationship is theoretically associated with the othering process. In the process, identification and subjectification are moot questions not only in post-colonial theory but in the novel as well. The third chapter is intended to make use of Bhabha’s idea of ‘cultural difference’ to review and redefine what the word ‘multiculturalism’ is like. In turn, it helps to shed much more light upon Rushdie’s palimpsesting modern India over Moorish Spain. In addition, liminal space refers to a contact zone of cultural difference that elucidates Rushdie’s eclecticism between popular culture and high culture in the novel. The fourth chapter is to discuss the way Bhabha colligates liminal space and the idiolect ‘nationness’ and the way he relates the idea of nation to narration. The relationship between nation and narration is applied to the understanding of how Rushdie utilizes literary techniques, especially intertextual materials and historical allusions, for a re-construction of a nation in a fictional world. The conclusive chapter is to reiterate some important arguments that are germane to the above key concepts and to the reciprocal clarification between Bhabha’s ‘liminal space’ and Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh.

Placed deposits have received increasing attention over the past 30 years, particularly in prehistoric British archaeology. Although disagreement still exists over the definition, identification, and interpretation of placed deposits, significant advances have been made in theoretical and methodological approaches to placed deposits, as researchers have gradually moved away from relatively crude ‘ritual’ interpretations toward more nuanced considerations of how placed deposits may have related to daily lives, social networks, and settlement structure, as well as worldview. With the exception of comments on specific deposits and a recent preliminary survey, however, Anglo-Saxon placed deposits have remained largely unstudied. This thesis represents the first systematic attempt to identify, characterize, analyse and interpret placed deposits in early to middle Anglo-Saxon settlements (5th–9th centuries). It begins by disentangling the various definitions of ‘placed’, ‘structured’, and ‘special’ deposits and their associated assumptions. Using formation process theory as a basis, it develops a definition of placed deposits as material that has been specially selected, treated, and/or arranged, in contrast with material from similar or surrounding contexts. This definition was applied to develop contextually specific criteria for identifying placed deposits in Anglo-Saxon settlements. Examination of 141 settlements identified a total of 151 placed deposits from 67 settlements. These placed deposits were characterized and analysed for patterns in terms of material composition, context type, location within the settlement, and timing of deposition relative to the use-life of their contexts. Broader geographical and chronological trends have also been considered. In discussing these patterns, anthropological theories of action, agency, practice, and ritualization have been employed in order to begin to understand the roles placed deposits may have had in structuring space and time and expressing social identities in Anglo-Saxon settlements, and to consider how placed deposition may have articulated with Anglo-Saxon worldview and belief systems.