As religiões afro-brasileiras, constituindo pertinentes sistemas simbólicos que enriquecem a diversidade cultural do Brasil, consolidaram-se em prestigiado universo de pesquisa na antropologia social. O proposta dessa dissertação será versar sobre o panorama dessas formas religiosas no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil) tendo por base a promoção do diálogo dos saberes acadêmico e nativo. Visando isto, empregou-se uma revisão bibliográfica pertinente a estas religiosidades no Rio Grande de Sul - com destaque aos aspectos centrais apresentados - e a sistematização dos resultados da etnografia baseada na experiência de campo, em especial, na cidade de Porto Alegre (RS). A escritura, a partir de textos, imagens e caixas textuais, foi elaborada no sentido de colaborar na valorização da dialogia. Ao longo da pesquisa visualizou-se limites conceituais na apreensão do fenômeno religioso afro-brasileiro a partir da delimitação de uma tipologia ideal, algo presente em diversos trabalhos acadêmicos, motivando a adoção do conceito de politeísmo para refletir sobre o complexo de formas religiosas que compõe o campo afro-religioso, denominado pelos praticantes pelo termo “religião”. Ao relativizar a tipologia ideal, percebe-se a possibilidade de ampliar a simetrização entre o conhecimento nativo e o acadêmico. / The African-brazilian religions, a relevant symbolic system to enrich the cultural diversity of Brazil, is consolidated in prestigious research universe in social anthropology. The purpose of this dissertation will be about the outlook of these religious forms in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) based on the promotion of dialogue between the academic and indigenous knowledge. Aiming at this, we used relevant literature to this religiosity in Rio Grande do Sul, highlighting key aspects, and the systematization of results of ethnography based on field experience, especially in the city of Porto Alegre (RS). The scripture, from texts, images and text boxes, was prepared to collaborate in the valuation of dialogism. Throughout the research visualized conceptual limits in the apprehension of african-brazilian religious phenomenon from delimiting an ideal typology, something present in several academic papers, motivating the adoption of the concept of polytheism to reflect on the complex of religious forms that compose african-religious field , called by practitioners the term “religião” . To relativize the ideal typology, we see the possibility of expanding the symmetrization between indigenous and academic knowledge .

As religiões afro-brasileiras, constituindo pertinentes sistemas simbólicos que enriquecem a diversidade cultural do Brasil, consolidaram-se em prestigiado universo de pesquisa na antropologia social. O proposta dessa dissertação será versar sobre o panorama dessas formas religiosas no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil) tendo por base a promoção do diálogo dos saberes acadêmico e nativo. Visando isto, empregou-se uma revisão bibliográfica pertinente a estas religiosidades no Rio Grande de Sul - com destaque aos aspectos centrais apresentados - e a sistematização dos resultados da etnografia baseada na experiência de campo, em especial, na cidade de Porto Alegre (RS). A escritura, a partir de textos, imagens e caixas textuais, foi elaborada no sentido de colaborar na valorização da dialogia. Ao longo da pesquisa visualizou-se limites conceituais na apreensão do fenômeno religioso afro-brasileiro a partir da delimitação de uma tipologia ideal, algo presente em diversos trabalhos acadêmicos, motivando a adoção do conceito de politeísmo para refletir sobre o complexo de formas religiosas que compõe o campo afro-religioso, denominado pelos praticantes pelo termo “religião”. Ao relativizar a tipologia ideal, percebe-se a possibilidade de ampliar a simetrização entre o conhecimento nativo e o acadêmico. / The African-brazilian religions, a relevant symbolic system to enrich the cultural diversity of Brazil, is consolidated in prestigious research universe in social anthropology. The purpose of this dissertation will be about the outlook of these religious forms in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) based on the promotion of dialogue between the academic and indigenous knowledge. Aiming at this, we used relevant literature to this religiosity in Rio Grande do Sul, highlighting key aspects, and the systematization of results of ethnography based on field experience, especially in the city of Porto Alegre (RS). The scripture, from texts, images and text boxes, was prepared to collaborate in the valuation of dialogism. Throughout the research visualized conceptual limits in the apprehension of african-brazilian religious phenomenon from delimiting an ideal typology, something present in several academic papers, motivating the adoption of the concept of polytheism to reflect on the complex of religious forms that compose african-religious field , called by practitioners the term “religião” . To relativize the ideal typology, we see the possibility of expanding the symmetrization between indigenous and academic knowledge .

As religiões afro-brasileiras, constituindo pertinentes sistemas simbólicos que enriquecem a diversidade cultural do Brasil, consolidaram-se em prestigiado universo de pesquisa na antropologia social. O proposta dessa dissertação será versar sobre o panorama dessas formas religiosas no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil) tendo por base a promoção do diálogo dos saberes acadêmico e nativo. Visando isto, empregou-se uma revisão bibliográfica pertinente a estas religiosidades no Rio Grande de Sul - com destaque aos aspectos centrais apresentados - e a sistematização dos resultados da etnografia baseada na experiência de campo, em especial, na cidade de Porto Alegre (RS). A escritura, a partir de textos, imagens e caixas textuais, foi elaborada no sentido de colaborar na valorização da dialogia. Ao longo da pesquisa visualizou-se limites conceituais na apreensão do fenômeno religioso afro-brasileiro a partir da delimitação de uma tipologia ideal, algo presente em diversos trabalhos acadêmicos, motivando a adoção do conceito de politeísmo para refletir sobre o complexo de formas religiosas que compõe o campo afro-religioso, denominado pelos praticantes pelo termo “religião”. Ao relativizar a tipologia ideal, percebe-se a possibilidade de ampliar a simetrização entre o conhecimento nativo e o acadêmico. / The African-brazilian religions, a relevant symbolic system to enrich the cultural diversity of Brazil, is consolidated in prestigious research universe in social anthropology. The purpose of this dissertation will be about the outlook of these religious forms in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) based on the promotion of dialogue between the academic and indigenous knowledge. Aiming at this, we used relevant literature to this religiosity in Rio Grande do Sul, highlighting key aspects, and the systematization of results of ethnography based on field experience, especially in the city of Porto Alegre (RS). The scripture, from texts, images and text boxes, was prepared to collaborate in the valuation of dialogism. Throughout the research visualized conceptual limits in the apprehension of african-brazilian religious phenomenon from delimiting an ideal typology, something present in several academic papers, motivating the adoption of the concept of polytheism to reflect on the complex of religious forms that compose african-religious field , called by practitioners the term “religião” . To relativize the ideal typology, we see the possibility of expanding the symmetrization between indigenous and academic knowledge .

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:12:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6137.pdf: 2477459 bytes, checksum: 7f1c69b3d934f96b2c206446f0d478fc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-08 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The main subject of this investigation is concerned with the idealistic influences on Max Weber spiritualistic interpretation. The problem gained as heritage from German idealism, initially referred as an inverted world , since it can be understood as the difficulty that challenges the historic interpretation of practical values, this problem may be also identified inside Max Weber s interpretation of both, ethical and aesthetical phenomena. This investigation is twofold, as the subtitle indicates; the first part shall deal with the aesthetical fragmentation, the emergence of conflictive values in the artistic phenomena. The second part shall deal with the ethical crisis, undertaking this expression in the most literal sense, as a breakdown or a rupture of the ethical world. Both interpretations shall joint together, composing the Weberian diagnosis of an absolute polytheism and of the problem of theodicy. The Weberian theory of values once properly grasped shall finally guide us to draw a conclusion about the relation between spiritualistic and materialistic interpretations, as presented in the guidelines of Max Weber s greatest interests in the economic ethics of the world religions. / O principal tema dessa investigação está voltado para as influências idealistas na intepretação espiritualista de Max Weber. O problema adquirido por herança do idealismo alemão, denominado inicialmente de problema do mundo invertido , corresponde à dificuldade que desafia a intepretação histórica dos valores práticos. Ele será identificado no interior da interpretação de Max Weber tanto dos fenômenos éticos como estéticos. Tal como o subtítulo sugere, trata-se de uma investigação em duas instâncias; a primeira abordará a fragmentação estética, o surgimento de valores conflitantes segundo os fenômenos do campo da arte. A segunda parte abordará a crise ética, tomando essa expressão no seu sentido mais literal, como um rompimento, uma cisão no mundo ético. Essas duas interpretações poderão ser justapostas por se remeterem tanto ao diagnóstico de Weber de um politeísmo, como ao problema da teodiceia. Uma vez que a teoria weberiana dos valores for propriamente identificada, ela poderá então nos conduzir a uma conclusão acerca da relação entre a interpretação espiritualista e materialista que compõe o principal interesse de Max Weber na ética econômica das religiões mundiais.

VELES SLAVIC DEITY IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Bc. Michaela Šebetovská ABSTRACT The thesis deals with Slavic god Veles. The emphasis is put on primary textual sources about him. With regard to their fragmentary nature, there is a need to make use of comparative material. Informations about other Indo-European gods and beings from Slavic folklore similar to Veles are used as well. The purpose is not only to understand isolated functions, but also connections between them. This seems as the best way how to gain the idea of the whole character of Veles as the Slavs before Christianity could see it.

Listening to Birth asserts that structures of power reproduce themselves by instituting particular modes of listening and sound production. Situating my research within feminist sound studies, I argue that meanings conjured around the audible, material bodies of women were carefully crafted by elites in antiquity, in order to construct gendered ideologies of kingship, civilisation, and nature. I examine these power dynamics as expressed in mythic and magical texts and iconographies, dating from the Bronze Age to later Roman antiquity. Throughout the thesis, I examine the development of symbolic systems and narrative tropes that linked mining and metallurgy with reproduction and vocality. My analysis emphasises how the invention of nature was accomplished, in part, through a metallurgical reclassification of the voices and sexualities of women as indiscrete phenomena: womb, mouth, and voice were elided with mining and smelting to form a unified semantic realm. I argue that this invention of ‘vulvar vocality’ reclassified female sounds as illicit, providing a plaform for the removal of women from the public sphere. I attempt to connect the gendered discourse found in myths and magical rituals to the political and economic domain of state-craft, to demonstrate the importance of hegemonic mythopoeic control of audible female reproduction for establishing ideologies of colonisation and extraction. I link analyses of texts and iconographies from the Bronze Age Mesopotamians, Hittites, Canaanites, Minoans, and Egyptians to later materials from the Iron Age Greeks, Israelites, and Romans—my goal is to demonstrate both the ubiquity and the continual reproduction of metallurgical ideology across the ancient world. I also present my preliminary research into the lasting impact that antique notions of vulvar vocality had on later state-craft. I begin to trace the preservation and elaboration of antique metallurgical literature by Byzantine and Islamic scholars, who in turn exerted strong influence on the Ottomans and late medieval and early modern Europeans. I outline future work to investigate the exponential rise of entrepreneurial metallurgy in late medieval and early modern Europe, arguing that this metallurgical discourse provided symbolic re-enforcement for the rapidly-accelerating mining and metal trade that formed the core of European colonial expansion. I suggest that vulvar vocality was central to early modern metallurgical, demonological, and colonial discourse, and that specific female vocalities and silences were purposefully crafted into the colonial project in order to forcibly redefine women, along with the lands and children stolen from them, as mere natural resources.

Both Plato and the Cambridge Platonists hold the view that moral knowledge depends primarily on cognitive resources which are innate to the mind. There is, nevertheless, a need for our minds to be prompted through experience in order for knowledge to occur. The following study is an attempt to reconstruct and compare the accounts in Plato and the Cambridge Platonists of the empirical conditions that are required for knowledge. For Plato, these conditions are a result of a decline in political and psychological constitutions, through which the intellect is increasingly developed. Dialectical analysis of received customs, laws, opinions, and language may then reveal the moral ideas upon which the polity was initially based and which remain implicit in common sense throughout the historical decline. Philosophical knowledge consists of a recollection of the ancient wisdom which was revealed to the original lawgiver by the gods. In the Cambridge Platonists, philosophical knowledge likewise consists of a recollection of revealed knowledge that stood at the foundation of a form of life, namely, Judaism. The revival of ancient Greek and Jewish philosophical theories in modern times heralds the end of history, in which the complete system of knowledge is both attainable and necessary for salvation. From the perspective of humanity as a whole, knowledge is initially granted through revelation, then generally forgotten, and finally recollected in a highly intellectual age of deteriorating morality and stability. The esoteric traditions of knowledge, coupled with recent developments in science and philosophy, act as the prompts for knowledge, given an intuitive basis that has been formed through the spread of Christianity. This intuitive basis serves as the concrete way in which the natural anticipations of the mind are gradually shaped in order to recognize the truth when it appears in a shrouded manner in modern philosophy. Both Plato and the Cambridge Platonists are critics of the similar intellectual trends in their times and they respond with similar arguments; however, unlike Plato, the Cambridge Platonists are unable to connect their rational critique with their genetic critique of modern ideas, rendering the latter ineffective. / Thesis (Ph.D, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-24 16:19:49.145

Ce travail de recherche porte sur les symboliques de pouvoirs magiques liées à la production du textile en Scandinavie médiévale durant l’âge viking, en particulier sur la quenouille, emblème de la vie quotidienne des femmes vikings. L’analyse établit qu’elle était porteuse d’une pluralité de métaphores magiques et mythiques et était rattachée à une multitude d’objets, de personnages et de créatures de la mythologie scandinave. Cette étude est fondée sur les découvertes archéologiques ainsi que les descriptions textuelles de pratiques cultuelles magiques vikings, et démontre que la quenouille était non seulement perçue comme un outil typiquement féminin au cœur de la production du textile, mais aussi comme un objet fantastique qui permettait de pratiquer la magie. Ces attributs surnaturels jouaient un rôle décisif dans l’expression de l’autonomie et du pouvoir social féminin dans la société scandinave, qui était alors presqu’uniquement centrée sur le masculin. L’indépendance et les privilèges de ces femmes s’articulaient principalement à travers une conception du monde foncièrement issue du polythéisme scandinave, dont le motif le plus important semble avoir été la quenouille. L’hégémonie chrétienne cause la disparition lente de cette base mythologique, et donc des connotations surnaturelles de la quenouille, entraînant avec elles le pouvoir et l’influence sociale des femmes. / This research concerns the symbols of magical powers linked to the production of textiles in medieval Scandinavia during the Viking Age as expressed through the distaff, emblem of the daily life of Viking women. The analysis establishes that distaffs represented a variety of magical and mythical metaphors, and were also associated to multiple objects, characters and creatures in Scandinavian mythology. This study is based on archaeological discoveries and textual descriptions of viking magical cult practices and demonstrates how the distaff was perceived not only as the heart of ancient textile production, but also as a fantastical and characteristically feminine object that could achieve a variety of magical acts. These supernatural attributes played a decisive role in the determination and the expression of female autonomy and power in the male-centric Viking society. The independence and privileges of these women hinged on the Nordic mythological world, and its main motif seems to have been the distaff. With the spread of Christianity in the Scandinavian world, this polytheistic understanding of the world slowly disappeared, alongside the magical connotation of the distaff, and with it, the social power and influence of women.

This thesis finds out how the concepts of the divine in African Traditional Religions are similar or different, particularly in Ghana and Lesotho and in other parts of Africa in general. In doing so, the researcher combines literature review of eminent scholars who have studied the religious and socio-cultural life of the people of Ghana and Lesotho in particular and Africa in general, with personal field study through dissemination of questionnaires, interviews and personal observations. Through this approach he finds out the various religious phenomena that reveal the concept of the divine in the two countries concerned and in other African countries through comparison of their worships and socio-cultural activities in order to come out with the differences and the similarities that may call for synthesis of the concept in Africa. He also finds out how the concept of the divine in Africa has been influenced by foreign religions and culture particularly Christianity, Islam, Western culture and Education. And how their services and disservices have affected the concept of the divine in Africa. The researcher also looks at the issue of monotheism as against polytheism in African religious perspective to find out whether the African Traditional Religions are polytheistic, monotheistic or monolatry. The study reveals that the concept of the divine, in the two countries under study, ends up in one Supreme deity-God- .but that the approach to the concept is not always the same. There are some differences and similarities, which also prevail in other African Traditional Religions and in Christianity. There is also a look into whether the term "African Traditional Religions" is appropriate for the religious belief and practices found in Africa, and whether a synthesis of religious practices in Africa would be possible in future. In the final analysis the study reveals that the African concept of the divine as pertains in the two countries is not different from that of Christianity and Islam but that the approach to the concept differs due to differences in the perception of the divine through sociocultural and religious milieus. / Religious Studies & Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

From Ancient Near Eastern texts, the Bible and archaeological artefacts, we are able to glimpse an over arching belief in a feminine deity. During the occupation of the Temple Mount by the Knights Templars, earlier traditions were ”re-discovered” and accepted as a de facto tradition. William St Clair at the threshold of the Renaissance, mindful of the danger of heresy, was intellectually able to bring together many traditions into a broad Biblically-based theology that recognised the early Israelite traditions as the foundation of Christian belief. All this is evident in Rosslyn Chapel. / OLD TESTAMENT & ANCIENT NE / MA (BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY)