Thesis (Diplôme d'études supérieures de sciences économiques)--Université d'Aix-Marseille, 1973. / 10.00DH. Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-151).

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

This thesis investigates the dual roles that women played in the cult of the martyrs in Christianity in Late Antiquity: as martyrs worthy of admiration and as venerators engaged in acts of celebration. The investigation is driven by questions regarding the identity, agency, and power of women in the cult of martyrs, focusing on late antique (second- to fifth-century) North Africa. Late antique Christians expressed their veneration of the martyrs in a variety of ways, including (but not limited to) special church services, praying for the martyrs, visiting martyrs’ shrines to ask for miracles (often healing in nature), and partaking in commemorative feasts at the martyrs’ graves on the anniversaries of their deaths. In all of these modes of veneration, women took on various roles that were analogous with other roles outside of the cult of the martyrs, such as wife, mother, patron, or client. Female martyrs are also identified using these roles, and thus this provides a useful area of comparison. By exploring these roles, this thesis arrives at a more nuanced understanding of women’s agency and power in traditional contexts and how such agency and power were transferred, continued, and challenged within the cult of the martyrs. The thesis engages in textual and discourse analysis of the relevant primary sources, particularly the martyr texts, sermons, letters, and treatises by North African writers. In the secondary literature, this study engages with the diverse works of classicists, historians, archaeologists, religious studies scholars, and feminist theorists. The interdisciplinary approach of the thesis is further nuanced by an examination of the concepts of identity, agency, and power. Applying these analyses to the context of women’s participation in the cult of the martyrs provides new insights into how we can uncover women’s experiences in ancient sources, where women’s voices are almost always obscured by male discourses.

This dissertation explores North Africa’s role in the development of its own religious discourse, specifically with regard to martyrdom, death, the afterlife, and other eschatological themes. Historians of early Christianity and Islam often depict the region as peripheral, but it was actually a crossroads where pre-existing traditions met new ideas to develop unique, localized versions of these religions. More often than not, these emphasized a pursuit of martyrdom and veneration of saints. This longue-durée study covers a vast timeline, spanning the pre-Christian period to the late Fatimid Caliphate. Its central focus, however, is the Donatist schism that divided North Africa in the fourth and fifth centuries. While typically portrayed as a fanatical, death-mongering sect, Donatism was a multi-faceted movement whose identity shifted with the changing times. It maintained a distinctive African character throughout with an emphasis on the teachings of Tertullian and Cyprian. Rather than accept a static definition of martyrdom, these African voices actively participated in the discourse. Using interdisciplinary methodologies that combine history with archeology, anthropology, theology, and literary analysis, this dissertation traces both the religious and social contexts of North African martyrdom. The continuity of such themes across the region’s changing cultural and religious landscapes amplifies North African voices in a field where they have often encountered silence.

Sahrawi communities in the Western Saharan region of northwest Africa have experienced a series of radical shifts over the past century from decentralized nomadic tribal organization to colonial rule under the Spanish Sahara (1884-1975) and annexation by Morocco and Mauritania in 1975. The international dispute over the future of the Western Sahara remains unresolved between the Moroccan government that administers the territory and the Sahrawi opposition that seeks self-determination under the leadership of the Polisario Front. In this context, this dissertation explores the lived experience and social memory of Sahrawis affected by conflict, diaspora, and urbanization over the past thirty-five years by examining multivocal expressions of ethnic and gender identity, nationalism, and citizenship in personal narratives and oral poetry in Hassaniyya Arabic. Through modes of everyday speech and verbal performances, Sahrawis living in the undisputed region of Morocco and the disputed Western Sahara exhibit varying political allegiances linked to tribal and national affiliations and political economic factors. Pro-independence activists negotiate public and clandestine aspirations for an independent state with the realities of living under Moroccan administration while refugees in Algeria employ performance genres to appeal for political and humanitarian support in the international community and maintain communication in the Sahrawi diaspora. Intergenerational perspectives between Sahrawis born before and after the 1975 cleavage reveal key divergences between the older generation that retains an active memory of nomadic livelihoods and pre-national tribal organization, the middle generation affected by a massive shift to urban residence and compulsory postcolonial nationalism, and the younger generation raised primarily in urban environments and refugee camps. Across generations, Sahrawi women have retained a prominent role in maintaining tribal and family ties and serving as leaders in nationalist and social movements.

Social conflict is common in many nations around the world. Tensions often arise from cultural misunderstandings and disagreements over national and group membership in multicultural populations. France offers a particularly clear example of such unrest. As a contemporary multi-ethnic, multicultural nation, France advocates both the belief in universal human rights as well as assimilationist policies designed to create a singular majority culture. North African immigrants and Pied-Noir repatriates are two groups at the center of recent debate in France. Both have historical ties to colonial French North Africa, but now reside within the modern French state. Each offers a unique case study of alternative strategies related to cultural negotiation and social tension as both groups currently demand recognition as French citizens and minorities. This dissertation analyses how North African and Pied-Noir minority communities in France engage discourses of history, culture, and identity to create a hospitable place for themselves in the French nation by redefining themselves both as minorities and as active citizens. One primary mechanism through which these groups achieve these goals is cultural associations, or social clubs. Cultural associations were legalized in 1901 and have not yet found a well-established role in France. Minorities use this institutional fluidity to develop concurrently their national and minority identities. Within such associations, they develop performances for both minority and outside audiences, engage contemporary French understandings of "culture," and acquire attention and resources needed to enact social change. One of the recurring tropes in such performances is the display of minority history and the role minorities play in French history. Through analysis of such activities this dissertation argues that these groups create new conceptions of national membership through their assertion of their right to be members in the French nation while retaining their cultural difference.

In this thesis, data collected from both previously published material and new surveys conducted using satellite imagery on the architecture and construction of over 2,400 rural structures in nine different regions of Tripolitania and dating between the 1st c. BC and the 7th c. AD are brought together and analysed on a regional scale. The synthesis and standardisation of these data and the creation of new typologies, applicable to structures in all parts of the region have, for the first time, facilitated meaningful comparisons between buildings and settlements across Tripolitania during the period under the study, in a more systematic fashion and on a wider scale than has previously been possible. This first part of this study contextualises the material with discussions on the historical background of Tripolitania, previous investigations and methodological foundations, the evidence for pre-Roman architectures and settlement, and the chronology of rural settlement during the period under study based on ceramic evidence. This is followed by a discussion of the known military buildings in the region, with particular reference to how these structures related and potentially contributed to the development of civilian settlement and architecture. The second part of this study presents quantitative and qualitative analyses of the physical characteristics of the main group of buildings under investigation: unfortified and fortified farm buildings. Discussions of how different spaces may have been utilised and the spatial relationships between the settlement groups formed by these buildings provide insight into how and why different types of buildings developed in the countryside between the 1st c. BC and the 7th c. AD. These analyses demonstrate that the rural buildings of Tripolitania can be seen as meaningful reflections not only of the wide variety of activities taking place in the buildings themselves, but also of the varying histories and patterns of land-use in different parts of the region and even the status, wealth, and socio-cultural structures of the people who constructed and lived in them.

A competition agency represents an independent regulatory institution, which takes the form of an administrative body. A competition authority enables the development of markets and displays to market operators and new players a dedication to the principles of free markets and fair competition. In other words, a competition authority should intervene in a timely manner to correct any anti-competitive behaviour and implement the necessary remedies; it should be equipped with an adequate knowledge of the market in order to make its decisions. Moreover, its involvement should be predictable, that is, it should have a positive influence on markets. Furthermore, a competition agency should continuously evaluate its role as public institution and law enforcer by following the economic and legal evolution of the jurisdiction in which it operates. Until recently, the debate has predominantly revolved around the substance of competition law. However, in recent years, the evaluation of the performance of competition agencies has been embraced by numerous countries, including developing ones. This is because most emerging countries around the world have progressively been opening their domestic markets to competition, which led to giving more power to competition agencies to monitor markets. As this perspective has not been explored in the context of Maghreb countries, which also represent developing economies, this research endeavours to do so. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyse the extent to which the performance of competition agencies in Maghreb countries influences the enforcement of competition law.

The history of North Africa is extremely complex, and it has been difficult to assess from genetic and archeological data whether early populations were replaced by later migrations or if there has been continuous settlement of the region. To resolve the history of human origin and migrations in North Africa, I have used two main forms of genetic data, the maternally inherited mtDNA and 730,000 genome-wide SNPs from a genotype array in a sample set representative of the region. I have discovered that North Africa is a mosaic of an autochthonous component dating back to the Paleolithic and at least four other ancestries, two recent ancestries from sub-Saharan Africa and the others from Europe and the Near East. We have also discovered extensive North African gene flow to the Iberian Peninsula, and minor proportions in the rest of the Europe. / La història del Nord d’Àfrica és extremadament complexa, i fins ara ha estat molt difícil determinar a partir de la genètica o l’arqueologia si els primers pobladors van ser reempleçats per migracions posteriors, o si el poblament de la regió ha estat continuat al llarg del temps. Per tal d’investigar els orígens i les migracions de l’home al Nord d’Àfrica he fet servir dos marcadors genètics en un grup de poblacions representatives de la regio, el marcador heretat per via materna, el DNA mitocondrial (mtDNA), i 730,000 SNPs de tot el genoma genotipats amb un xip. He descobert que el Nord d’Àfrica és un mosaic format per un component autòcton amb origens en el Paleolític i un mínim de quatre components més, dos d’ells recents d’origen sub-Saharià i els altres Europeu i d’Orient Proper. També hem descobert un flux genic recent d’origen Nord Africà molt elevat a la Península Ibèrica, i en menor quantitat a Europa.

Thesis--Université de Paris-Sorbonne. / "Textes relatifs aux périples libyques": p. [385]-427. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. [429]-433).