In this dissertation I examine the social functions of neighborhood plazas by tracing the development of a Classic Maya (AD 200-900) ritual and residential complex at the ancient city of Xultun, Guatemala. In ancient as in modern times, public open spaces were essential to urban life; yet their functions and meanings could vary within and among societies. Using archaeological and architectural data from three plazas and an adjacent residential complex, I identify a shift towards increased public spaces in the Late Classic period, and link this to the rising importance of displays of power for Xultun's growing population. Located on the northern periphery of Xultun, Los Aves, the focus of the study, is an architectural group consisting of a central residential area with three adjacent plazas to the east, west and northwest. During the Early Classic (AD 250-600) period, only one of the plazas had been built and the layout of the complex was balanced between public and private space. Residents carried out domestic activities within six modest patio groups and used a round platform in the western plaza, Plaza Colibrí, for group rituals. The construction of two new plazas during the Late Classic period (AD 600-900) dramatically changed the composition of Los Aves, tripling the amount of public space. Dominating the neighborhood was a new, larger plaza, Plaza Tecolote, with monumental, ritual architecture that opened to the south towards the city center, easily accessible to those outside of Los Aves. An increase in population at this time necessitated the construction of more domestic structures within the house groups, reducing the amount of proximate patio spaces. Such activities now took place in a new, smaller plaza, Plaza Loro, located in the northwest of the complex, that contained broad steps for seating. In the Early Classic period, Los Aves contained equal parts public and private space, while in the Late Classic period public plazas dominated. I argue that as populations grew, public displays of power became increasingly important, and new, larger plazas were built to accommodate these events. This development broadens our understanding of Classic Maya urbanism.

Synchrony, or rhythmic bodily unison activities such as drumming or cadence marching, has attracted growing scholarly interest. Among laboratory subjects, synchrony elicits prosocial responses, including altruism and empathy. In light of such findings, researchers in social psychology and the bio-cultural study of religion have suggested that synchrony played a role in humanity’s evolutionary history by engendering collectivistic commitments and social cohesion. These models propose that synchrony enhances cohesion by making people feel united. However, such models overlook the importance of differentiated social relations, such as hierarchies. This dissertation builds on this insight by drawing on neuroscience, coordination dynamics, social psychology, anthropology, and ritual studies to generate a complex model of synchrony, ritual, and social hierarchy, which is then tested in an experimental study. In the hypothesized model, shared motor unison suppresses the brain’s ability to distinguish cognitively between self-caused and exogenous motor acts, resulting in subjective self-other overlap. During synchrony each participant is dynamically entrained to a group mean rhythm; this “immanent authority” prevents any one participant from unilaterally dictating the rhythm, flattening relative hierarchy. As a ritualized behavior, synchrony therefore paradigmatically evokes shared ideals of equality and unity. However, when lab participants were assigned to either a synchrony or asynchrony manipulation and given a collaborative task requiring complex coordination, synchrony predicted a marginally lower degree of collaboration and significantly lower interpersonal satisfaction. These findings imply that unity and equality can undercut group cohesion if the collective agenda is a shared goal that requires interpersonal coordination. My results emphasize that, despite the inevitable tensions associated with social hierarchy, complementary roles and hierarchy are vital for certain aspects of social cohesion. Ritual and convention institute social boundaries that can be adroitly negotiated, even as egalitarian effervescence such as communitas (in the sense of Victor Turner) facilitates social unity and inspires affective commitments. These findings corroborate theories in ritual studies and sociology that caution both against excessive emphasis on inner emotive states (such as empathy) and against excessively rigid conventions or roles. An organic balance between unity and functional differentiation is vital for genuinely robust, long-term social cohesion. / 2018-06-21T00:00:00Z

Orientador: Lalada Dalglish / Banca: José Paiani Spaniol / Banca: Claudia Fazzorali / Banca: Hugo Fernando Salinas Fortes Junior / Banca: Ângela Cristina Lopes Legname Barbour / Resumo: Este trabalho é resultado de um antigo anseio de situar o barro (cerâmica e argila) como suporte recorrente e relevante dentro da cena artística contemporânea latino-americana, sob a perspectiva dos trabalhos de mulheres artistas. A ênfase desta pesquisa se deu nas obras que se direcionam às questões das raízes culturais, do feminismo e dos rituais. A análise da arte da cerâmica ocorreu por um viés diferente dos modelos eurocêntrico e androcêntrico e das tradicionais correlações do barro com artesanato e design, segundo o olhar da pesquisa cartográfica. Também, por meio de estudo das poéticas de mulheres artistas latino-americanas contemporâneas e através de revisão literária, procedeu-se a análise entre elas. Deste modo, este estudo destacou algumas práticas da cerâmica contemporânea da América Latina, constatando os desafios da pouca bibliografia vigente sobre o tema, apontou diálogos culturais entre as mulheres artistas e a transcategorização das obras apresentadas, além de apresentar a produção artística da autora, inserindo-a neste contexto. / Resumen: Este trabajo es resultado de un antiguo anhelo de situar el barro (cerámica y arcilla) como soporte recurrente y relevante dentro de la escena artística contemporánea latinoamericana, bajo la perspectiva de los trabajos de mujeres artistas. El énfasis de esta investigación se dió en las obras que se dirigen a las cuestiones de las raíces culturales, rituales y feminismo. El análisis del arte de la cerámica ocurrió de manera diferente del modelo eurocéntrico, androcéntrico y de las tradiciona- les correlaciones del barro con artesanía y diseño, según la mirada de la investigación cartográfi ca. También por medio de estudio de las poéticas de mujeres artistas latinoamericanas contemporáneas y a través de revisión literaria, se procedió el análisis entre ellas. De este modo, este estudio destacó algunas prácticas de la cerámica contemporánea de América Latina, constatando los desafíos de la poca bibliografía vigente sobre el tema, apuntó diálogos culturales entre las mujeres artistas y la transculturalización de las obras presentadas, además de presentar la producción artística de la autora, insertándola en este contexto. / Abstract: This work is the result of an ancient desire to situate mud (ceramics and clay) as a recurring and relevant support at the Latin American contemporary art scene, from the perspective of women artists. The emphasis of this research is on the artworks directed to the questions of the cultural roots, rituals and feminism. The analysis of the art of ceramics occurred by a diff erent way of the models eurocentric, androcentric and the traditional correlations of clay with craftwork and design, according to the cartographic research. Also by means of the study of the poetics of contemporary Latin American women artists and literary reviews, an analysis was carried out between them. Thus, this study highlighted some practices of contemporary ceramics in Latin America, noting the challenges of the current literature on the subject, pointed out cultural dialogues between women artists and the transcategorization of the works presented, besides presenting the artistic production of the author, inserting it in this context. / Doutor

The major focus of this dissertation is the ancestor worship that is inferred to have been practiced in the multiethnic Middle Sicán theocratic state (AD 950-1100) that prospered on the northern North Coast of Peru. The major objective is twofold: (1) demonstrating by archaeological means that ancestors were indeed worshipped in the Middle Sicán society and (2) elucidating the nature and role of the inferred ancestor cult and associated rituals and ceremonies. Ancestor (and the veneration of it) is one of the themes that have the deepest roots in the anthropological thoughts; nevertheless, many archaeologists have uncritically invoked ancestor veneration without sufficient theoretical underpinning and empirical support, to the point that James Whitley (2002) decried "too many ancestors." This dissertation thus begins with a review of the earlier anthropological discoveries and theoretical debates on what ancestor is and who becomes an ancestor, including the cases in the Andes. Based on this review of previous studies, it is hypothesized that the select members of deceased Middle Sicán elites were transformed into an ancestor through a series of prescribed processes. This hypothesis is examined in terms of the five possible material correlates of the inferred Sicán ancestors extracted from the regional archaeological database of the study area accumulated by the Sicán Archaeological Project (SAP) for the last three decades. The role of the inferred Middle Sicán ancestor cult is approached from the ideological perspective. It is inferred that the ancestor cult was employed by the ruling group as an ideological and political means to justify the existence and extension of social hierarchies and inequalities and thus targeted at wider populations different in genealogical origins as opposed to family or lineage members. This study focuses attention on the food preparations and consumptions documented by a test excavation at the principle plaza of the Sicán capital, "Great Plaza," adjacent to the inferred ancestral tombs and hypothesizes that the commensality among the living and the dead during feasts there served not only to commemorate the inferred ancestors, but also to bring together people in different social tiers and to consolidate the highly stratified, multiethnic Middle Sicán society. Two excavations at the ceremonial core of the Middle Sicán state capital, one at the Huaca Loro West Cemetery in 2006 and the other at the Great Plaza in 2008, provide varied lines of evidence that support the above two hypotheses. The results suggest that ancestor worship was indeed practiced during the Middle Sicán Period. By maintaining and monopolizing the ritual access to the Sicán Deity through their ancestors, the Sicán elites reproduced their religious and political power and retained the legitimacy of their social status. Concurrently, the Sicán elites consciously employed their ancestor cult for social integration. After the Middle Sicán Period, these ancestors seem to have retained their spiritual viability even after the later Chimú Empire took the control of this region. If not recognized as the Sicán anymore, they were remembered and honored by the living for over four centuries. On the basis of the merits of traditional approach (e.g., the study of architecture, iconography, bioarchaeology, and ethnohistory and ethnography in the Andes), this study gives primacy to the direct focus on the material residues and relational contexts and patterns of ritual activities and studies their change and stability through time in relation to other historical contingencies. The merit of focusing on the trajectories of ritual activities themselves in a long and wide perspective is that it sheds light on the regional peculiarities and contingent nature of the inferred ancestor veneration, which may be overlooked in cross-cultural, ethnological arguments about the nature, role, and capacity of ancestors. It also provides a wealth of information not only to determine what types of activities took place, but also to explore the intangible symbolic significance behind those activities. As a result, this approach provides a practical solution to the justified criticism by Whitley (2002) and demonstrates how we should approach ancestor veneration and what evidence we would need in order to appropriately define it in archaeological record.

This thesis provides evidence for patterned and pervasive ritual symbolism through use of animals and animal imagery in early Mesoamerican villages. I look at the faunal remains excavated from Early and Middle Formative (1350-850 B.C) domestic and ceremonial contexts at the Mixteca Alta site of Tayata, Oaxaca. I focus on the presence of exotic and locally available fauna including: domesticated dog, fish, turtle, small bird and nine-banded armadillo. By investigating the variable use of these animals in purposeful domestication, seasonal celebrations, autosacrifice, as musical instruments and in conjunction with building dedications, I highlight their importance to understanding broader patterns in the site as a whole. Specifically, I compare the presence of these animals at Tayata to other contemporary artifact assemblages, regional iconography, linguistic data, ethnographic descriptions and ethnohistoric accounts of Oaxaca and Mesoamerica. This investigation of ritual deposits within village-level societies provides a means to understand larger socio-political dynamics in this region. Based on the evidence provided, the use of animals in ritual activity at Tayata fits into larger spatial and temporal patterns of local and exotic faunal assemblages seen throughout Formative Mesoamerica. The importance of ritual activity is seen in the association of these animals within residential, ceremonial and elite deposits across multiple sites, indicating an increase in socio-political complexity as well as the presence of a Pan-Mesoamerican belief system during the Early and Middle Formative Periods. This study integrates faunal data within larger patterns of cultural activity including architectural style and zoomorphic figurines. Finally, this approach provides a more thorough understanding of the importance of looking at the context of all artifact types, even those which exist in small quantities, to form a broader perspective on a site or region.

This thesis explores the intersection of folkloric ritual theory and popular culture, expressed in science fiction television. The three-part rite of passage model established by folklorist Arnold van Gennep and later expounded upon by anthropologist Victor Turner is used as an analytical tool to establish the themes and structures of two popular television programs, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who. Both contain structures that resemble a rite of passage and exhibit a particular feature of the liminal stage of a rite of passage: ludic recombination. In the discussion of Battlestar Galactica, the plot arc of the entire series is analyzed as a rite of passage. On Doctor Who, the ritual model is examined as a structural component of the "companion" character. The structure and features of rites of passage allow science fiction narratives to explore sociocultural issues and existential themes in a meaningful way.

Every weekend in the Society for Creative Anachronism, people from the far reaches of the globe leave behind the structures of their everyday lives, dress themselves in clothing from the Middle Ages, and construct medieval personae. Within a pastiche of fantastical and historical influences, participants create the “Middle Ages as they should have been,” a liminal space where they experience a temporary communitas. Through their participation in informal rituals and formal ceremonies, they celebrate each other’s successes and create a community—a utopia—in which courtesy and honor are the shared core values. In addition, through their performances, people access their creative potential and explore issues of identity. When the weekend is over, the participants return to their modern lives, and—for many—a residue of their temporary creative adaptation persists and contributes to a transformation of their person. Using my insight as a participant observer, this dissertation focuses on some of the elements that contribute to the process of community creation and personal transformation.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social. / Made available in DSpace on 2013-03-04T19:11:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 305258.pdf: 24914714 bytes, checksum: a242b69ff3b48353fced602b6b78d4a9 (MD5) / Esta dissertação é um estudo sobre o cerimonial alto-xinguano que busca integrar uma revisão da bibliografia pertinente a esse tema com uma experiência etnográfica entre os Yawalapíti. O objeto focal é o sistema cerimonial alto xinguano. Quer-se compreender o papel da música e do ritual musical na formação do sistema pluriétnico e multilíngue do Alto Xingu - especialmente os Yawalapíti - e na formação da pessoa alto-xinguana. O objetivo é, por meio da literatura, das informações obtidas em campo e de uma descrição etnográfica do tapanawanã, entender como o ritual estabelece, renova e articula relações, e o quanto tais relações são essenciais para a formação do Alto Xingu enquanto sistema integrado. A relação que delimita este trabalho é a familiarização da alteridade, esta dividida em humana e não-humana. O ritual musical se apresenta como uma máquina de familiarizar a alteridade, fazendo com que se trave uma relação produtiva, contornando a tensão precedente. A noção de doença e o parentesco, além da mitologia e a música do tapanawanã, são as portas de entrada para perceber os processos relacionais do Alto Xingu. / The present dissertation is a study on the ceremonial of the Upper Xingu that integrates a review over the literature concerning this theme with an ethnographic experience among the Yawalapíti. The main object of its analysis is the ceremonial system of the Upper Xingu. This work aims at understanding the role of the music and of the musical ritual in the constitution of the multiethnic and multilingual system of the Upper Xingu - especially of the Yawalapíti - and in the formation of the Upper Xingu person. The objective is, through literature, through information obtained in the field, and through an ethnographic description of the tapanawanã, to comprehend how the ritual establishes, renews and articulates relationships, as well as how essential such relationships are to the establishment of the Upper Xingu as of an integrated system. The relationship that defines this research is the familiarization of the otherness, which is divided into human and nonhuman. The musical ritual is presented as a machine of familiarization of the otherness, creating a productive relationship and overriding the tension previously present. The concept of disease and kinship, besides the mythology and the music of tapanawanã, are the gateways to understand the relational processes of the Upper Xingu.

abstract: In order to illuminate the role written documents played within medieval monastic life, this project takes as a case study the monastery of Cluny and some associated houses during the central Middle Ages. I approach these documents as signs, drawing on anthropological and philosophical work on semiosis, and as media technologies, using history and cultural studies centered on orality and literacy, and conclude that the monastic use of texts was essentially ritual, and as such exerted an important influence on the development of literacy as a tool and a set of practices. Nor did this influence flow in just one direction: as monastic ritual transformed the use of documents, the use of documents also transformed monastic ritual. To study the relationship between document and ritual, I examine what medieval documents reveal about their production and use. I also read the sources for what they directly report about the nature of monastic life and monastic ritual, and the specific roles various documents played within these contexts. Finally, these accounts of changing monastic scribal and ritual practice are laid alongside a third—that of what the monks themselves actually enunciated, both directly and indirectly, about their own understanding of semiosis and its operation in their lives. Ultimately, my dissertation connects valuable theoretical and philosophical work on ritual, semiosis, and orality and literacy with manuscript studies and with a wide range of recent historiography on the complex transformations remaking society inside and outside the cloister during the Middle Ages. It thus serves to bring these disparate yet mutually indispensable lines of inquiry into better contact with one another. And in this way, it approaches an understanding of human sign-use, carefully rooted in both material and institutional culture, during a key period in the history of human civilization. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2015

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:00:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2505.pdf: 1057769 bytes, checksum: da6b24c07803790a1be6716a126cb52c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-15 / This dissertation deals with the "mega-rebellion" of 2006 that occurred at the prison units of the State of São Paulo. Seen, felt and observed from inside a penitentiary facilities, I tried to analyze it as a symmetrical and complementary ritual of solidary, enduring, suffering, and memorable bodies who, from time to time, are fed back by police officers, in the form of blitzes and punishments as a feedback to oppress, coerce and impart pain and suffering capable of causing effects such as domestication and docilization of the bodies. The fabrication of these mobile and gentle bodies that transit at the various State prisons, after being transferred to other locations as a result of outcome of the rebellion, has granted the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) [First Command of the Capital] more territorial expansion, strenghtened by its ideology and transformation of unequal bodies into equal bodies. This ethnography approaches on how the prisioners fought for the PCC, by feeding themselves, retroactively, of their own production when they consumed their subtances, their fluids and their matters during the fighting process and punishing. At last, the prison rebellion turned out to be a symmetrical - complementary ritual that marked the whole continuum of procedures and behavior of thinking and resistant bodies under the "ideals" of the PCC. Strenghtened by the eternal love of their partners and confident in the divine justice, the prisoners overcame the suffering and continued their walk to freedom. / Esta dissertação versa sobre a mega-rebelião ocorrida no ano de 2006 nas unidades prisionais do Estado de São Paulo. Vista, sentida e observada de dentro de uma penitenciária, procurei analisá-la como um ritual simétrico e complementar de corpos solidários, resistentes, sofridos e memoráveis que, de tempos em tempos, são retroalimentados pelos policiais, na forma de blitzes e castigos como feedback para oprimir, coagir e imprimir dor e sofrimento capazes de causarem efeitos como a domesticação e a docilização dos corpos. A fabricação desses corpos móveis e dóceis que transitaram pelas diversas prisões do Estado, após serem transferidos para outras localidades com o desfecho da rebelião, conferiu ao Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) maior expansão territorial, fortalecimento de sua ideologia e transformação dos corpos desiguais em corpos iguais. Esta etnografia aborda como os presos lutaram em prol do PCC, alimentando-se, retroativamente, da sua própria produção ao consumirem suas substâncias, seus fluidos e suas matérias durante o processo de luta e impressão dos castigos. Enfim, a rebelião prisional constituiu-se em um ritual simétrico complementar que marcou todo um continuum de condutas e comportamentos de corpos pensantes e resistentes sob os ideais do PCC. Fortalecidos pelo amor eterno das companheiras e confiantes na justiça divina, os presos superaram o sofrimento e continuaram na caminhada rumo à liberdade.