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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
121

Archaeology of sacred space : the spatial nature of religious behaviour in the Blue Mountains National Park Australia

Kelleher, Matthew January 2003 (has links)
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.
122

Twenty-four miles around Nelungaloo : the history and importance of cinema exhibition in pre-television times to a country area of central-western New South Wales

Cork, Kevin James, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences January 1994 (has links)
Little research into historical, architectural and social significance of the picture theatre in pre-television rural Australian society has been undertaken. Taking a New South Wales country area (to represent a microcosm), this thesis records the picture venues and qualitative research material from past patrons and theatre staff. The study 1/. establishes the environment created by a picture theatre 2/. shows that New South Wales was typical of Australia in film attendance before the 1960s 3/. introduces the Central-West subject area, and describes how data was gathered from available records 4/. shows the development of the picture venues within the subject areas 5/. gives 'life' to the occasion formerly associated with going to the pictures 6/. suggests the success ot the rural picture shows was a happy co-incidence: the exhibitors' desire to make money and the patrons' desire for a social experience (and entertainment). A recommendation is made that one of the venues discovered during the course of research should be investigated for heritage listing. It is important that we should acknowledge the vital part that going to the pictures once played in pre-television days, especially in rural areas / Master of Arts (Hons)
123

Community Structure of Cliff-Top Coastal Heathlands in Botany Bay National Park, Sydney

January 1998 (has links)
This thesis examines community structure of cliff-top coastal heathlands in Botany Bay National Park, Sydney. Community properties of floristic composition, structure and species richness are investigated. This investigation is made in order to assess the justification for contemporary pre-emphasis in local studies on individual community properties. It is also made in order to assess the relative and independent contributions of individual properties to variance in overall community structure. It is also made in order to assess the relative utility of multi-property classifications in summarising community structure of cliff-top coastal heathlands. First, the presence of determinable structure in each property is assessed through multivariate classification of respective data sets. Secondly, a new model of community structure is developed in which the hypothesis that community structure is a function of common (shared) and independent (unique) variance in each of the three properties is assessed. This is achieved through application of variance partitioning using correspondence analysis techniques. Thirdly, a matrix combining variance in all three properties is classified. This classification is compared with those of individual properties in order to assess the hypothesis that more ecologically cohesive classifications than those of single properties are obtainable. The ecological significance (environmental relativity) of all classifications and variance components is assessed through examination of relationships with variance in 20 environmental factors which encompass variation in maritime factors, soil physical factors, soil nutrition factors and effects of time since fire. Classifications of individual properties showed the presence of determinable structure in each. Eleven floristic complexes, nine structural complexes and eighteen species richness complexes were recognised. Nineteen community complexes were recognised from the classification of the combined property matrix. All complexes were shown to differ significantly with respect to multiple environmental factors. Variance partitioning showed the presence of both independent and common variance components with respect to properties compared pairwise. These were all shown to differ in magnitude. Examination of environmental correlates showed ecological differentiation of all properties and most variance components. Maritime and fire factors provide a major axis of environmental differentiation for most properties and variance components. A second major axis was resolved with respect to physical soil factors. With the exception of variance in species richness, major soil nutrients were generally of secondary importance to community structure. Low soil nutrients may demarcate heathlands from other vegetation types. However, this study shows elevated importance of other major areas of environment for community structure within cliff-top coastal heathlands. Comparisons of environmental homogeneity characteristics between all classification systems showed the classification of the combined property matrix to be more ecologically robust than those of structure or species richness. Homogeneity characteristics of the combined classification remained statistically inseparable from that of floristic composition. However, studies provided some evidence suggesting greater robustness of the combined classification with regard to fine-scale variance in community structure. This thesis shows that variance in all major community properties of the studied vegetation to be of ecological significance. It also shows that this significance is differential with respect to properties and their variance components. Pre-emphasis on individual properties in syntheses of local systems thus involves the loss of ecological information. I thus conclude that if adequate ecological syntheses of cliff-top coastal heathlands are to be obtained which are appropriate to their scale of distribution and functioning in the Sydney area then inclusion of attributes of multiple properties is required. Equally, multiple sources of environmental variation need to be examined.
124

Redfern kids connect : technology and empowerment

Sengara, Ryan, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Education and Social Sciences January 2005 (has links)
Redfern Kids Connect is a community technology project that has run in inner-city Sydney since 2002. Redfern is known to many as the heart of urban Aboriginal Australia and as a diverse community facing challenges around poverty, crime and race relations. For three years, children (8-12 years old), and volunteers (university students and young professionals) have met each Saturday to play on computers and socialise. The project’s experiences with relationships, technology, and empowerment have been as confusing as they have been exciting. In the spirit of action research, this thesis explores the impacts the project has had. Uniquely embedded in the process of reflection occurring away from its on-the-ground activities, it tells the project’s story through the eyes of its volunteers. The research concludes that the project's main contributions to empowerment have been through building social capital (Cox, Putnam) and improving new forms of literacy (Warschauer). Vital to supporting and extending these outcomes have been taking a social approach to supporting technology use, shaping a safe and open environment (Marvin et. al), supporting critical thinking and expression (Freire) and examining the project 'behind the scenes'. The author takes the dual role of researcher and participant in the research. / Master of Arts (Hons)
125

Blood, sweat and queers : (re)imagining global queer citizenship at the Sydney 2002 Gay Games

Burns, Kellie Jean, n/a January 2008 (has links)
This thesis takes the Sydney 2002 Gay Games: Under New Skies �02, as a case study into the production of global queer citizenship. In the existing body of work around the Gay Games they are analysed as an international gay and lesbian sporting event (Cramer, 1996; Krane et al., 2001; Pronger, 2000; Waitt, 2005), as a gay and lesbian community event (Krane & Waldron, 2000; Symons, 2002, 2004; Waitt, 2003, 2006), and as a cultural site where discourses of nationality, sport and sexuality converge (Miller, 2001; Probyn, 2000; Rowe et al., 2006; Stevenson et al., 2005; Waitt, 2005; Waitt & Markwell, 2006). This thesis builds on these investigations, asking specific questions about the ways in which discourses of sexuality and citizenship are produced and governed within and across the Sydney 2002 Gay Games promotional and media materials. The analysis is guided by Michel Foucault�s notion of governmentality (1991) and the works of related theorists who map the disparate array of neoliberal mechanisms of government that �conduct the conduct� and �act on the actions� of individuals and certain populations (Bratich et al., 2003; Gordon, 1991; Larner, 2000; Larner & Walters, 2002, 2004; Miller, 1993; Rabinow & Rose, 2003; Rose, 1996a, 1999). The analysis begins by asking how discourses of the autonomous, neo-liberal subject converge with discourses of �global living� such that individuals are invited to imagine themselves as increasingly flexible, freedom-loving (Rose, 1999), self-assured, cosmopolitan global citizens. The idea of the global imagination is then used to explore the ways in which the Gay Games commitment to �total inclusion� and its promise of personal and community transformation rely on similar neo-liberal renderings of tbe subject. It argues that the event�s �political� promises not only normalise certain forms of identity-based consumption (Chasin, 2000), they also (re)produce and normalise a very entrepreneurial, western-centric, cosmopolitan �brand� of global queer citizenship. The thesis also emphasises the important role that images and image-related technologies played in upholding normative meanings around queer sexuality and queer citizenship at the Games. In doing so, the thesis argues that images and technologies do more than simply represent individuals� lived experiences. Images, it argues, are (inter)active entities that produce and shape individuals� understanding of the �real� and how they come to know themselves as certain types of subjects. Where the Sydney 2002 Gay Games were concerned, images were integral in producing normative meanings around gender, sexuality and citizenship and in governing participants� experiences as �locals�, �global visitors�, �athletes�, �cultural participants� and consumers.
126

Volatile sulfur compounds in coastal acid sulfate soils, northern N.S.W.

Kinsela, Andrew Stephen, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, UNSW January 2007 (has links)
The cycling of biogenic volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) within marine and terrestrial ecosystems has been shown to play an integral role in atmospheric chemistry; by influencing global climate change through the creation of cloud condensation nuclei and controlling acid-base chemistry; as well as influencing sediment chemistry including the interactions with trace metals, particularly regarding iron sulfide formation. Despite this, the examination of VSCs within Australian coastal acid sulfate soils (ASS) is an unexplored area of research. As ASS in Australia occupy an area in excess of 9 M ha, there is a clear need for a greater understanding of the cycling of these compounds within such systems. This thesis looks at the concentrations of several VSCs within agricultural and undisturbed ASS on the east coast of Australia. Initial measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO2) were made using passive diffusion samplers, which were followed by two detailed field-based studies looking at the concentrations and fluxes of both SO2 and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) using flux-gradient micrometeorological techniques. These novel results indicated that this agricultural ASS was a substantial source of atmospheric H2S (0.036-0.056 gSm-2yr-1), and SO2 (0.095-0.31 gSm-2yr-1), with flux values equating to many other salt- and freshwater marshes and swamps. The flux data also suggested that the ASS could be a continual source of H2S which is photo-oxidised during the daytime to SO2. Measurements of both compounds showed separate, inverse correlations to temperature and moisture meteorological parameters indicating possible contributing and / or causal release factors. Further identification of these and other VSCs within ASS samplers was undertaken in the laboratory using gas chromatography in combination with solid-phase microextraction. Although SO2 and H2S were not discovered within the headspace samples, two other VSCs important in atmospheric sulfur cycling and trace metal geochemistry were quantified; dimethylsulfide (DMS; &gt 300??g/L) and ethanethiol (ESH &gt 4??g/L). The measurements of H2S, DMS and ESH are the first quantifications with Australian ASS, and they may be important for refining regional or local atmospheric sulfur budgets, as well as interpreting previous SO2 emissions from ASS. Ultimately this thesis further enhances our understanding of the cycling of VSCs within acid sulfate systems.
127

Contact conflict and regeneration : aboriginal cultural geography of the Lower Murray, South Australia / Philip Allan Clarke.

Clarke, P. A. (Philip Allan) January 1994 (has links)
Bibliography: leaves 361-390. / 425, [50] leaves : ill. (chiefly col.), maps ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Geography and Anthropology, 1995
128

Blood, sweat and queers : (re)imagining global queer citizenship at the Sydney 2002 Gay Games

Burns, Kellie Jean, n/a January 2008 (has links)
This thesis takes the Sydney 2002 Gay Games: Under New Skies �02, as a case study into the production of global queer citizenship. In the existing body of work around the Gay Games they are analysed as an international gay and lesbian sporting event (Cramer, 1996; Krane et al., 2001; Pronger, 2000; Waitt, 2005), as a gay and lesbian community event (Krane & Waldron, 2000; Symons, 2002, 2004; Waitt, 2003, 2006), and as a cultural site where discourses of nationality, sport and sexuality converge (Miller, 2001; Probyn, 2000; Rowe et al., 2006; Stevenson et al., 2005; Waitt, 2005; Waitt & Markwell, 2006). This thesis builds on these investigations, asking specific questions about the ways in which discourses of sexuality and citizenship are produced and governed within and across the Sydney 2002 Gay Games promotional and media materials. The analysis is guided by Michel Foucault�s notion of governmentality (1991) and the works of related theorists who map the disparate array of neoliberal mechanisms of government that �conduct the conduct� and �act on the actions� of individuals and certain populations (Bratich et al., 2003; Gordon, 1991; Larner, 2000; Larner & Walters, 2002, 2004; Miller, 1993; Rabinow & Rose, 2003; Rose, 1996a, 1999). The analysis begins by asking how discourses of the autonomous, neo-liberal subject converge with discourses of �global living� such that individuals are invited to imagine themselves as increasingly flexible, freedom-loving (Rose, 1999), self-assured, cosmopolitan global citizens. The idea of the global imagination is then used to explore the ways in which the Gay Games commitment to �total inclusion� and its promise of personal and community transformation rely on similar neo-liberal renderings of tbe subject. It argues that the event�s �political� promises not only normalise certain forms of identity-based consumption (Chasin, 2000), they also (re)produce and normalise a very entrepreneurial, western-centric, cosmopolitan �brand� of global queer citizenship. The thesis also emphasises the important role that images and image-related technologies played in upholding normative meanings around queer sexuality and queer citizenship at the Games. In doing so, the thesis argues that images and technologies do more than simply represent individuals� lived experiences. Images, it argues, are (inter)active entities that produce and shape individuals� understanding of the �real� and how they come to know themselves as certain types of subjects. Where the Sydney 2002 Gay Games were concerned, images were integral in producing normative meanings around gender, sexuality and citizenship and in governing participants� experiences as �locals�, �global visitors�, �athletes�, �cultural participants� and consumers.
129

Community Structure of Cliff-Top Coastal Heathlands in Botany Bay National Park, Sydney

January 1998 (has links)
This thesis examines community structure of cliff-top coastal heathlands in Botany Bay National Park, Sydney. Community properties of floristic composition, structure and species richness are investigated. This investigation is made in order to assess the justification for contemporary pre-emphasis in local studies on individual community properties. It is also made in order to assess the relative and independent contributions of individual properties to variance in overall community structure. It is also made in order to assess the relative utility of multi-property classifications in summarising community structure of cliff-top coastal heathlands. First, the presence of determinable structure in each property is assessed through multivariate classification of respective data sets. Secondly, a new model of community structure is developed in which the hypothesis that community structure is a function of common (shared) and independent (unique) variance in each of the three properties is assessed. This is achieved through application of variance partitioning using correspondence analysis techniques. Thirdly, a matrix combining variance in all three properties is classified. This classification is compared with those of individual properties in order to assess the hypothesis that more ecologically cohesive classifications than those of single properties are obtainable. The ecological significance (environmental relativity) of all classifications and variance components is assessed through examination of relationships with variance in 20 environmental factors which encompass variation in maritime factors, soil physical factors, soil nutrition factors and effects of time since fire. Classifications of individual properties showed the presence of determinable structure in each. Eleven floristic complexes, nine structural complexes and eighteen species richness complexes were recognised. Nineteen community complexes were recognised from the classification of the combined property matrix. All complexes were shown to differ significantly with respect to multiple environmental factors. Variance partitioning showed the presence of both independent and common variance components with respect to properties compared pairwise. These were all shown to differ in magnitude. Examination of environmental correlates showed ecological differentiation of all properties and most variance components. Maritime and fire factors provide a major axis of environmental differentiation for most properties and variance components. A second major axis was resolved with respect to physical soil factors. With the exception of variance in species richness, major soil nutrients were generally of secondary importance to community structure. Low soil nutrients may demarcate heathlands from other vegetation types. However, this study shows elevated importance of other major areas of environment for community structure within cliff-top coastal heathlands. Comparisons of environmental homogeneity characteristics between all classification systems showed the classification of the combined property matrix to be more ecologically robust than those of structure or species richness. Homogeneity characteristics of the combined classification remained statistically inseparable from that of floristic composition. However, studies provided some evidence suggesting greater robustness of the combined classification with regard to fine-scale variance in community structure. This thesis shows that variance in all major community properties of the studied vegetation to be of ecological significance. It also shows that this significance is differential with respect to properties and their variance components. Pre-emphasis on individual properties in syntheses of local systems thus involves the loss of ecological information. I thus conclude that if adequate ecological syntheses of cliff-top coastal heathlands are to be obtained which are appropriate to their scale of distribution and functioning in the Sydney area then inclusion of attributes of multiple properties is required. Equally, multiple sources of environmental variation need to be examined.
130

Volatile sulfur compounds in coastal acid sulfate soils, northern N.S.W.

Kinsela, Andrew Stephen, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, UNSW January 2007 (has links)
The cycling of biogenic volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) within marine and terrestrial ecosystems has been shown to play an integral role in atmospheric chemistry; by influencing global climate change through the creation of cloud condensation nuclei and controlling acid-base chemistry; as well as influencing sediment chemistry including the interactions with trace metals, particularly regarding iron sulfide formation. Despite this, the examination of VSCs within Australian coastal acid sulfate soils (ASS) is an unexplored area of research. As ASS in Australia occupy an area in excess of 9 M ha, there is a clear need for a greater understanding of the cycling of these compounds within such systems. This thesis looks at the concentrations of several VSCs within agricultural and undisturbed ASS on the east coast of Australia. Initial measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO2) were made using passive diffusion samplers, which were followed by two detailed field-based studies looking at the concentrations and fluxes of both SO2 and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) using flux-gradient micrometeorological techniques. These novel results indicated that this agricultural ASS was a substantial source of atmospheric H2S (0.036-0.056 gSm-2yr-1), and SO2 (0.095-0.31 gSm-2yr-1), with flux values equating to many other salt- and freshwater marshes and swamps. The flux data also suggested that the ASS could be a continual source of H2S which is photo-oxidised during the daytime to SO2. Measurements of both compounds showed separate, inverse correlations to temperature and moisture meteorological parameters indicating possible contributing and / or causal release factors. Further identification of these and other VSCs within ASS samplers was undertaken in the laboratory using gas chromatography in combination with solid-phase microextraction. Although SO2 and H2S were not discovered within the headspace samples, two other VSCs important in atmospheric sulfur cycling and trace metal geochemistry were quantified; dimethylsulfide (DMS; &gt 300??g/L) and ethanethiol (ESH &gt 4??g/L). The measurements of H2S, DMS and ESH are the first quantifications with Australian ASS, and they may be important for refining regional or local atmospheric sulfur budgets, as well as interpreting previous SO2 emissions from ASS. Ultimately this thesis further enhances our understanding of the cycling of VSCs within acid sulfate systems.

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