Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2003. / "A thesis submitted to the School of Engineering and Industrial Design, University of Western Sydney, in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." Includes bibliographical references and appendices.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2003. / Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne, 2001. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-234).

Thesis (PhD) -- University of Western Sydney, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 318-344.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 180-201.

Thesis (PhD) - University of Canberra. / "March 2006" Submitted in accordance with assessment requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree of the University of Canberra. Bibliography: p. 228 - 250.

Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of Sydney, 1999. / Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 16, 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Public Health to the Dept. of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine. Degree awarded 1999; thesis submitted 1998. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.

Thesis (PhD)--University of Technology Sydney, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 2004. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 15, 2005). Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-279).

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis examines the material correlates of religious behaviour. Religion is an important part of every culture, but the impact religion has on structuring material culture is not well understood. Archaeologists are hampered in their reconstructions of the past because they lack comparative methods and universal conventions for identifying religious behaviour. The principal aim of this thesis is to construct an indicator model which can archaeologically identify religious behaviour. The basis for the proposed model stems directly from recurrent religious phenomena. Such phenomena, according to anthropological and cognitive research, relate to a series of spatio-temporally recurrent religious features which relate to a universal foundation for religious concepts. Patterns in material culture which strongly correlate with these recurrent phenomena indicate likely concentrations of religious behaviour. The variations between sacred and mundane places can be expected to yield information regarding the way people organise themselves in relation to how they perceive their cosmos. Using cognitive religious theory, stemming from research in neurophysiology and psychology, it is argued that recurrent religious phenomena owe their replication to the fact that certain physical stimuli and spatial concepts are most easily interpreted by humans in religious ideas. Humans live in a world governed by natural law, and it is logical that the concepts generated by humans will at least partially be similarly governed. Understanding the connection between concept and cause results in a model of behaviour applicable to cross-cultural analysis and strengthens the model’s assumption base. In order to test the model of religious behaviour developed in this thesis it is applied to a regional archaeological matrix from the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales, Australia. Archaeological research in the Blue Mountains has tentatively identified ceremonial sites based on untested generalised associations between select artefact types and distinctive geographic features. The method of analysis in this thesis creates a holistic matrix of archaeological and geographic data, encompassing both qualitative and quantitative measures, which generates a statistical norm for the region. Significant liminal deviations from this norm, which are characteristic indicators of religious behaviour are then identified. Confidence in these indicators’ ability to identify ceremonial sites is obtained by using a distance matrix and algorithms to examine the spatial patterns of association between significant variables. This thesis systematically tests the associations between objects and geography and finds that a selective array and formulaic spatiality of material correlates characteristic of religious behaviour does exist at special places within the Blue Mountains. The findings indicate a wide spread if more pocketed distribution of ceremonial sites than is suggested in previous models. The spatial/material relationships for identified religious sites indicates that these places represent specialised extensions of an interdependent socio-economic system where ceremonial activity and subsistence activity operated in balance and were not isolated entities.