<p> Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Religious Studies, Anthropology and Sociology, this dissertation poses the question: How is religious meaning constructed in the face of death in contemporary North America, given that commercial establishments, non-denominational funeral chapels, have become the primary context for the performance of death rituals dealing with death, the dead and the bereaved? </p> <p> The dissertation is based on an extended period of ethnographic research at the Marlatt Funeral Home in Dundas, Ontario, a corporately owned non-denominational funeral home which serves a very diverse, but predominantly urban religious population. I concentrate on the funeral professionals as well as clergy and the bereaved in their contribution to the cultural construction and social organization of death in contemporary North America. </p> <p> While there is an extensive body of social science literature on death and funerary practices in non-Western contexts, there is very little systematic academic research on death and funeral practices in contemporary North America, in particular, in Canadian settings. My dissertation furthers the discussion started in studies by Emke (2001) and Small ( 1997) which focus on funeral practices in Newfoundland as well as studies by Bradbury (1999), Davies (2002), Howarth (1996) and Walter (1990, 1994, 1996, 1998) elsewhere in the Anglophone West by focusing on funeral practises in an urban Canadian setting This dissertation demonstrates that funeral directors perform a complicated role as mediators and ritual specialists balancing multiple domains of spirituality, emotion, personal taste, institutionalized religion, ethnicity and commerce. Furthermore, I argue that funeral directors mediate between the living and the dead, between life and death, and between this world and the afterlife, as it is conceived of by their clients. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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This dissertation explores the role of science and technology in democracy and the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) through an illustrative case on a uranium mining controversy in the US state of Virginia. Arguably, traditional STS scholarship has primarily served what we might call an unmasking function by working to expose political, cultural, gender, corporate, and other factors that get masked by the cultural authority of scientific expertise. Following the lead of other STS scholars seeking to move beyond an unmasking-only mode of scholarship, this dissertation offers a novel take on the relationship between expertise and public controversy over technoscience by suggesting that cost-benefit analysis might serve a beneficial pro-democratic ritual role. To explore this question of the role played by expertise and what we might learn and recommend from approaching CBA as a democratic ritual, I consider the case of a uranium mining and milling controversy in Virginia. This controversy surfaced in two distinct historical moments and prominently featured technical studies utilizing expert predictive methods. I analyze these texts from the perspective of the sociopolitical ritual theory developed in the dissertation and then suggest a set of recommendations regarding how we might humanize and deploy CBA within the context of enhancing rituals that serve to maintain liberal democratic political imaginaries. / Ph. D.

Rituals are an integral part of society. The focus of research on rituals has been shifting to highlight the effect rituals may produce on individual resilience and ability to function. This study examined the relationships between participation in family rituals and several conceptually related facets of the human experience, including religiosity, openness to experience, and anxiety. Participants responded to questions on an assessment instrument (Family Ritual Questionnaire) designed to measure participation in a broad variety of identified family rituals; they were grouped according to responses on that questionnaire, and the resulting groups were compared on their responses to questionnaires addressing religiosity (Religious Background and Behavior Questionnaire), openness to experience (Revised NEO Personality Inventory Openness to Experiences scale), and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). The four-group classification system did not produce significant differences on measures of religiosity, openness to experience, or trait anxiety. Nor were there any significant differences noted when the groups were examined on the basis of the demographic characteristics of age, gender, separation time from family of origin, or academic status. The demographic descriptive which was associated with specific group differences related to adult composition of family of origin: participants described the adults present in their families of origin, and the family types were grouped into traditional, mixed, and nontraditional families. A difference was identified between the traditional and nontraditional families on level of ritualization. This finding may be indicative of a useful direction for subsequent research inquiry.

Pretendo elaborar uma edição comentada dos Hinos órficos (HO), um compêndio de 88 hinos cléticos, compostos entre os sécs. 2-4 d.C., partindo do texto estabelecido por Quandt (1955) e confrontando-o com as propostas de Ricciardelli (2000), Morand (2001) e Fayant (2014). Este projeto é uma tentativa de instigar a formação de tradição filológica de estabelecimento de texto, aparato crítico e comentários pormenorizados nos estudos clássicos no Brasil. Planejo realizar críticas pontuais do texto grego e apresentar algumas soluções válidas, mas tendo sempre como apoio o texto já consolidado de Quandt. Proponho também um estudo aprofundado, no qual debato: i) a autoria e datação desses poemas; ii) a sua provável ocasião de performance, com base em uma abordagem empírica do texto e uma apreciação do status quaestionis sobre o tema; iii) os elementos órficos e sincréticos dos HO; iv) a estrutura e disposição dos hinos dentro da coletânea; v) tipologia hínica e eficácia epiclética; vi) a linguagem e estilo, assim como a prosódia e métrica dos HO (fraseologia, epítetos, figuras empregadas). Como de praxe nesse tipo de estudo, os comentários serão feitos após o texto original, verso a verso. / I intend to elaborate an annotated edition of the Orphic Hymns, a compendium of 88 cletic hymns composed between the second and fourth centuries AD, based on the text established by Quandt (1955) and comparing it with Ricciardelli\'s (2000), Morand\'s (2001) and Fayant\'s (2014) texts. This is an attempt to instigate a philological tradition of text establishment, critical apparatus and detailed comments in classical studies in Brazil. My intent is to present some valid solutions to a number of passages, but always based on Quandt\'s already consolidated text. I also propose an in-depth study, in which I debate: i) the authorship and dating of these poems; ii) the probable time of performance, based on an empirical approach of the text and an appreciation of its status quaestionis; iii) the Orphic and syncretic elements in these compositions; iv) the structure and arrangement of the hymns in the collection; v) hymnic tipology and epicletic effectiveness; vi) the language and style, as well as the prosody and metric of Hymns (phraseology, epithets, used figures). As usual in this type of study, comments will be made after the original text, verse by verse.

Esta dissertação faz uma reflexão sobre a noção de pessoa dos índios Waimiri-Atroari, povo caribe-guianense, com um foco no ritual de iniciação masculina. Para tanto, abordo o ritual como um momento de aquecimento das trocas simbólicas deste grupo, em que o neófito encorpora diversas perspectivas ou pessoas em diversas escalas. A análise relaciona, portanto, as performances dos cantos que evocam animais, plantas, humanos e não humanos com algumas qualidades e hábitos destes seres evocados. O tema da troca aparece ainda em uma consideração sobre o casamento e as narrativas míticas. / This dissertation presents a reflection about the concept of personhood for the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous, a Caribbean-Guianean people, focusing on the male initiation ritual. In this sense, the ritual is approached as warming stage of the symbolic exchange within the group, a moment in which the neophyte embodies several perspectives or persons in several scales. The analysis relates, thus, the chant performances - which evoke animals, plants, human and non-humans to determined qualities and behavior of the evoked beings. The exchange theme also arises in a consideration on the marriage and the mythic narratives.