Ted Sider writes that "many are impressed with the utility of possible worlds in linguistics and philosophy", and this is true, in particular, of those with an interest in modal logic. However, in the midst of the marvelous milieu brought on by the development of possible world semantics, some have stopped to ask just what it is that possible worlds are. They certainly seem useful, and we seem to understand how to use them and talk about them, but what precisely is it that we're talking about when we talk of possible worlds? In this thesis, I will attempt to outline the most significant and well-recognized view in this debate: that of David Lewis. Through my discussion of him, I will find occasion to discuss some alternative views that have arisen. After finishing my presentation of Lewis, I will discuss where people have begun to take this debate and address the question of whether progress can be made towards a substantive answer. In Chapter I, I begin by presenting the motivation of the question of possible worlds found in the study of modal logic. I then present the major approaches taken to answering the questions that were raised, leading into my discussion of David Lewis's famous and robust account. I present key features of Lewis's view and then move into his criticisms of the other major responses. This much should suffice as a relatively thorough treatment of the answers that have come before. In Chapter II, I discuss the current state of the debate. I begin by mentioning several problems that can be spotted in Lewis's views in particular. I then move to Menzel's account, which tries to answer the question of possible worlds from a new angle, jettisoning the direction taken by Lewis and his contemporaries. I explain why Menzel has taken this new approach, and then move into another new approach, this time given by Stephen Yablo. I discuss how these two approaches can help serve each other in helpful ways. But, at last, I present several hurdles these two views would have to overcome in order to play together nicely.

This dissertation examines how Guatemalan converts transformed missionary Protestantism into a locally contextualized religion in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Using archival materials from local religious groups and public archives in Guatemala alongside missionary documents from the United States, this research identifies how converts adopted certain missionary teachings but reinterpreted or rejected others. This selective application not only altered the definition of Protestantism in Guatemala but also affected the early growth of the movement by creating contextualized forms of Protestantism that attracted more interest than foreign versions. The first section of the dissertation analyzes the theologies and goals that early missionaries brought to Guatemala and explains the intramural conflicts that created the first Protestant communities in the country. Between 1882 and 1921, five North American Protestant denominations and several independent missionaries entered Guatemala, each with particular ideas about how to improve the country both spiritually and materially. This internal diversity provided new converts with the ability to choose between multiple versions of Protestantism, but more importantly it also taught them how to carve out their own space between imported religious ideologies. The second section of the dissertation analyzes how local believers reinterpreted Protestantism within those spaces by pursuing four important areas of innovation: theological primitivism, Pentecostalism, political involvement, and nationalism. Despite protests from many foreign missionaries, between 1920 and 1944 numerous Guatemalan Protestants adopted variations of these four themes in attempts to create a culturally and socially relevant religious product. As new converts opted for these new local communities over missionary-led options, these four themes became defining hallmarks of Guatemalan Protestantism, which by the twenty-first century was practiced by one-third of the country’s population. This dissertation argues that these contextualized challenges to missionary ideas in the early twentieth-century made Protestantism an attractive local product in Guatemala and sparked the movement’s growth. It also demonstrates how poor and working class Guatemalans in the early twentieth century used Protestantism as a tool to participate in national conversations about race, gender, and class. / text

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Graduate

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the primitive played a crucial role in the emerging European modernist aesthetic. While art historians have been exploring the role of primitivism in modern art for decades, this area of research has received little attention in musicology. In this dissertation I examine how primitivism is constructed in modern French culture as manifest in three of the most important avant-garde stage works of the first part of the century: the Ballets Russes's Le Sacre du printemps (1913) and Les Noces (1923), and the Ballets Suedois's La Creation du monde (1923). Relying on primary sources such as reviews, other historically relevant documents, as well as the art historical literature, I trace the evolution of the cultural role of primitivism in pre- and post-World War 1 French culture. / French critics of Le Sacre viewed the work as a portrayal of Russian "Otherness" against which they could assert or question their own identity. Whereas the primitivism of Le Sacre was understood to be radical, excessive, even prophetic and apocalyptic, the primitivism of Les Noces was perceived as a manifestation of the classicist "call to order" and as an emblem of American-style mechanization. That it was also understood in terms of the post-war avant-garde's emphasis on classical ideals of austerity, dryness, and sobriety reflects the Purists' belief that machines heralded the new classicism. / Jazz was the ultimate symbol of both primitivism and modernity, and was initially hailed by the avant-garde as a revivifying source for the French tradition. In their attempt to neutralize the racial and political threats perceived to be inherent in jazz, the avant-garde emphasized its rationality, precision, and economy. La Creation du monde represents the avant-garde's complete assimilation of jazz and l'art negre into the French classical tradition.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1994. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 279-295).

Dans le milieu des années 1950, des expositions itinérantes d’art inuit contemporain sont envoyées sur plusieurs continents. Elles y connaissent une réception enthousiaste en raison du positionnement particulier que leur confère James A. Houston, à cheval sur les sphères conceptuelles du moderne et du supposé primitif. Seule la France, dont l’imaginaire collectif s’est pourtant largement enrichi de figures polaires depuis les missions d’apostolat et d’exploration, affiche alors une certaine défiance à l’endroit de cette nouvelle forme artistique. Cette thèse propose d’examiner les conditions de réceptions de l’art inuit contemporain dans un contexte hexagonal dominé jusque dans les années 1970 par le paradigme primitiviste, avant de se concentrer sur la multiplication des initiatives individuelles et collectives qui, depuis le début des années 1980, marquent un renouvellement du regard. Tout le long, l’art inuit est questionné dans sa faculté à être saisi comme un outil opératoire désignant une forme d’authenticité artistique ou culturelle. Un dernier pan s’intéresse au discours autochtone et aux jeux de double adresse auquel s’exercent les artistes inuit. / From the middle of the 1950s, traveling exhibitions of Contemporary Inuit Art have been staged across several continents. These exhibitions had been enthusiastically received, thanks in large part to the particular positioning put forth by James A. Houston, which established Contemporary Inuit Art within the artistic constructs of primitivism and modernism. This warm welcome was in marked contrast to France's own reception of Inuit art. Even though its collective imaginary has been largely shaped by figures from the North Pole, a view that can be traced back to the first apostolic and exploratory missions of the continent, France remained the only country that showed a certain distrust towards this artistic expression. This thesis will examine the conditions by which Contemporary Inuit Art has been re-interpreted within a series of evolving historical contexts, beginning with the domination of the primitivist paradigm until the 1970s, and moving towards the multiplication of individual and collective projects from the early 1980s, a context which prevails to this day. Throughout this examination, the question of Contemporary Inuit Art's ability to be seen as a symbol of artistic and cultural authenticity will be addressed. The final chapter will deal with the notion of aboriginal discourse and the 'double address' mode of communication that Inuit artists tend to employ.

Este estudo objetiva narrar uma história de obras produzidas por membros das classes populares, reconhecidas por meio de sua individualidade e inventividade, enfocando sua produção e sua recepção no Brasil, entre 1880 e 1990. A abordagem estética e histórica orientada pela fenomenologia foi realizada segundo o método micro-histórico, conduzido pela idéia de \"primitivo\". Os fragmentos das biografias e as imagens evocadas foram cruzados com os discursos de seus intérpretes que formularam designações como: \"arte primitiva\", \"arte psicopatológica\", \"arte bruta\", \"outsider art\", \"arte virgem\" e \"arte incomum\". No horizonte histórico da cultura brasileira abriram-se duas vias principais de interpretação: uma derivada do cientificismo do discurso psiquiátrico e outra do romantismo do discurso acerca da cultura popular. Não obstante a contribuição da noção francesa de Art Brut para questionar essas duas vias, a complexidade da produção artística brasileira solicita uma análise particular que revele o \"primitivo\" em suas ambigüidades / This study aims to narrate a history of art works produced by members of popular classes, recognized by its individuality and inventivety, focusing in the production and reception in Brazil between 1880 and 1990. The aesthetic and historic approaches was oriented by phenomenology followed the micro-historic method, guided by the idea of \"primitive\". The fragments of the biographies and evoked images were crossed with the discourse of its interpreters, that proposed designations as such: \"primitive art\", \"psychopathological art\", \"art brut\", \"outsider art\", \"uncommon art\" and \"virginal art\". In the historical context of the Brazilian culture two principal ways of interpretation were opened: one of them is derivated from the scientificism of the psychiatric discourse and the other from the romantic discourse about the popular culture. Nevertheless the contribution of the french notion of Art Brut to question these ways, the complexity of the Brazilian artistic production impose a particular analyses that reveals the \"primitive\" in its ambiguity

This essay examines the first chapter in Moa Martinson’s Kvinnor och äppelträd, “Mor badar”. Drawing on the theories of Ahmed and Butler, this analysis considers how the Body, the Gaze, and Space interact to form a new presentation of bathing women, in direct opposition to the one more commonly portrayed by male Swedish primitivists during the same time. Simultaneously, the essay considers, utilizing Grosz’s idea of “body writing”, how the chapter constitutes a method for Martinson as a female writer to claim control over the portrayal of women.

Denna uppsats behandlar den kristna anarko-primitivismen och dess argument för sin civilisationskritik utifrån Bibeln. Det hävdas att det går att förena kristen tro med anarkism. Det hävdas även att det finns stöd i Bibeln för anarko-primitivism, men att den i paraktiken inte är gångbar. Slutsats framförs att beröringspunkterna mellan Bibeln och anarko-primitivismen gör att dess idéer är rimliga att föra in i det teologiska samtalet.