This study addresses the question of the nature of indigenous people's connection to the land, and the implications of this for articulating these connections in legal arenas where questions of Aboriginal title and land claims are at issue. The idea of 'place' is developed, based in a phenomenology of dwelling which takes profound attachments to home places as shaping and being shaped by ontological orientation and social organization. In this theory of the 'senses of place', the author emphasizes the relationships between meaning and power experienced and embodied in place, and the social systems of property and territory that forms indigenous land tenure systems. To explore this theoretical notion of senses of place, the study develops a detailed ethnography of a Coast Salish Aboriginal community on southeast Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Through this ethnography of dwelling, the ways in which places become richly imbued with meanings and how they shape social organization and generate social action are examined. Narratives with Coast Salish community members, set in a broad context of discussing land claims, provide context for understanding senses of place imbued with ancestors, myth, spirit, power, language, history, property, territory and boundaries. The author concludes in arguing that by attending to a theorized understanding of highly local senses of place, nuanced conceptions of indigenous relationships to land which appreciate indigenous relations to land in their own terms can be articulated.

The Maori people - those Polynesians who moved to the cooler islands of New Zealand - possessed a mythology that matched their own great qualities. They had a myth of the Creation that rivals Genesis in beauty, a pantheon of gods and heroes who can be mentioned in the same breath as those of the Greeks, and a store of splendid tribal histories, half factual, half fabulous, ... These are the opening lines of the Preface to a recently published selection of Maori myths and legends in translation: they indicate how strongly many modern New Zealanders are attracted to the various forms of Maori literature. But this is no new phenomen. For the receptive Pakeha mind has been fascinated by Maori mythology since the very beginnings of European settlement in New Zealand. Indeed, if anything, the magnetic appeal of Maori myth and legend was probably most evident in the earliest years of intercultural contact. Thomas Kendall was one of the first missionaries to work among the Maori people. Unlike most of his fellow-evangelists, Kendall determined to study and so understand the religion and customs of his adopted flock. Unfortunately, this �tragic, Faustian figure� was soon out of his depth. Kendall wrote, I am now, after a long, anxious, and painful study, arriving at the very foundation and groundwork of the cannibalism and superstitions of these islanders. All their notions are metaphysical, and I have been so poisoned withh the apparent sublimity of their ideas that I have been almost completely turned from a Christian to a heathen. Another early missionary, Richard Taylor, also studied Maori beliefs in depth. But Taylor, though he felt impelled by his inter-course with the Maori to write a long and influential treatise on his interpretation of Maoritanga, did manage to retain a degree of scholarly objectivity towards his subject. Yet even so, Taylor acknowledges in his treatise that, The Maori mythology is extremely interesting, and quite different from what we should expect from a people sunk in barbarism. ... Their ideas in some respects are not so puerile, as those even of the more civilized heathens of old, and without the light of inspiration, could not be expected to be more advanced. Nor were secular scholars immune to "Maori fever." Sir George Grey wrote of the Maori that � their traditions are puerile� and their �religious faith ... is absurd�. Yet during the eight years that he was Governor of the nascent colony of New Zealand in a period of constant interracial stress, Grey devoted a great deal of what little spare time he had to the collection and publication of the myths and legends, and �the ancient traditional poems, religious chants, and songs, of the Maori race�-- Introduction. Four poets are considered: Alfred Domett (1811-1887), Arthur Henry Adams (1872-1936), Jessie Mackay (1864-1938), Blanche E. Baughan (1870-1958).

Through a theoretical framework of myth in genesis, operation and review, this thesis evaluates the relationship between Australian society and the myth of the digger, a tradition of Australian military manhood which originated in the First World War. The digger in genesis was a product of early twentieth century Australia???s need to establish for itself a distinct national identity. Deriving strongly from existing mythology of the bushman/pioneer and foster by the work of CEW Bean, it was quickly adopted by both governments and citizens anxious to promote the contributions of the Australian soldiers and to understand the relationships that these had with the emerging Australian society. The digger in operation from the First World War to the end of the Second World War to the early 1960s demonstrates the way in which Australian (enamoured of its simple and seemingly enduring qualities) Embedded the myth at the core of orthodox thinking about national Identity, despite its exclusivity and prescriptive, authoritarian control by conservative institutions. The era of the Vietnam War acted as a key review phase for the myth as its relevance was questioned significantly. Despite temporary rejection from many and fragmentation into a variety of icons, Australia???s brief flirtation with radical thinking did not last beyond the mid-1970s. A return to conservative values in the 1980s-1990s coincided with political reconciliation over the Vietnam War ??? by the mid-1990s, the digger myth had retained its position of relevance and importance within Australian culture, demonstrating its capacity to become adapted and appropriated to reflect an increasingly democratic and pluralistic society. The current prevailing version of the digger, the &quotnew professional&quot, demonstrates the parallel transition of Australian military culture. It co-exist with other representations, providing a scaffold through which individuals interact with it to develop their own understanding of the application of the digger myth to both their own lives and Australian society.

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1989. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Ohio State University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 863-896).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [37]-[39]).

Thesis (MA)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2008. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Linda Karell. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-104).

Thesis (M.A.)--Edith Cowan University, 2008. / Submitted to the Faculty of Education and Arts. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-179). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thèse--Université de Paris. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-317) and index.