This thesis explores the role of fresh water in Bronze Age Crete. It presents a catalogue of Minoan water management systems, and investigates the ways in which these systems were incorporated into broader social, political, economic, religious and cultural processes and practices. While the primary focus of this thesis revolves around the data collected on water management systems, it also explores the place of fresh water in Minoan art, iconography, and ritual action. While water is a fundamental resource, and the provision of fresh water on Crete is affected by special geological, geographic, and climatological issues, this has been a largely neglected area in the literature on Minoan archaeology. The thesis seeks to redress this neglect, and argues that the evidence reveals a culture that was deeply concerned with fresh water, developing technologically sophisticated solutions, and devoting considerable economic resources, and political and religious attention to it. One of the key claims of this thesis is that fresh water was a meaningful and valued commodity in Bronze Age Crete, and certain sources of water were particularly revered. This status was exploited by elite groups, who invested in often monumental and highly visible systems for collecting and storing fresh water, in order to assert and reaffirm their special status. Fresh water was also incorporated into ritual practice, and – through its innate capacity to act as a conduit for complex meanings and metaphors – participated in the construction of Minoan religious and cultural beliefs. This thesis also draws out the ways in which water’s religious meaningfulness was incorporated into elite strategies of social control and the construction of an ideology of difference.

Please read abstract in the main document / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

The study of possession phenomena in South Asia presents a unique set of challenges for scholars. Because of its occurrence within diverse contexts, from healing temples and ritual performances to festival celebrations and devotional practices, attempts on the part of scholars to hone in on a concise vocabulary and conceptual framework with which to articulate the critical nature and function of possession has resulted in an extensive body of literature with wide-ranging methodological and theoretical dispositions. Each of these approaches, in its own way, contributes to an increasingly complicated web of intersecting disciplinary approaches. As this body of literature continues to grow, and with it, the resources for generating a more productive academic discourse surrounding possession, so too grows a set of distinct challenges. How is one to sort through the maze of interpretive strategies and the conclusions they produce? Is it possible to assemble them in such a way as to develop a cooperative and mutually beneficial approach? Is there hope for arriving at a commonly shared vocabulary of possession capable of functioning across disciplinary boundaries? And if so, would such a vocabulary avoid forcing localized experiences and practices to conform to ill-fitting, non-native criteria of analysis? Through critical evaluation of ethnographic contributions to the study of possession, this paper sets out to arrive at a set of conclusions about what works best for furthering the depth of appreciation and understanding for how diverse, complex, and pervasive possession practices are within a South Asian context. My criteria for this evaluation focuses on the degree to which specific approaches are established in, and guided by, an ethos of inclusivity, one that develops a healthy and vibrant dialectic between indigenous models of experience, practice, and interpretation, and those of the scholar. Along the way, I investigate key issues raised in the study of possession, such as ritual efficacy, embodiment, agency, and the nature of human relations with various nonhuman beings.

Thesis advisor: Hosffman Ospino / Roughly one-third of U.S. Catholic parishes serve parishioners of multiple cultural, ethnic, and/or linguistic groups. In these “shared parishes,” the possibility and meaning of community across boundaries is an urgent question. This dissertation examines the role of ritual in the formation of community in diverse parishes. Critiquing prevailing ecclesiological models of unity in diversity that inadequately address structural sins of racism and xenophobia, I argue for an understanding of communion as a task of the local Church, embodied ritually in solidaristic practice. Then, establishing a conversation among ritual studies and U.S. Latinx discourses of border identity, I propose an understanding of the shared parish as a kind of borderland – as a place where a subjunctive communal identity can be negotiated ritually through embodied engagement. Methodologically, the dissertation is grounded in an ethnographic study conducted over five years at St. Mary of the Angels, a small, diverse parish in Boston, MA. Weaving together historical and archival data from parish, neighborhood, and archdiocese; participant-observation of bilingual Holy Week liturgies; and Spanish- and English-language interviews, the case study foregrounds the dissertation's theoretical work by analyzing how parishioners constructed rituals that facilitated the crossing of cultural, racial, and linguistic boundaries. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

A partir de la seule documentation disponible, à savoir l’iconographie, il a été dressé un corpus de 526 objets, tous supports confondus, à partir de l’Etrurie tyrrhénienne, de l’Etrurie campanienne et de l’Etrurie padane. Cette thèse propose dans un premier temps, en plus de justifier et de délimiter le corpus des scènes de la danse étrusque et de poser les fondements historiographiques, de penser et définir la représentation même de la danse. Quels éléments dans l’image permettent de définir une scène de danse comme telle ? S’agit-il véritablement de danse ? La confusion que l’on note dans les textes grecs et latins entre pratiques dansées, sportives et guerrières se rencontrent aussi dans l’image, ce qui a amené à appréhender la danse au sens large, en termes de performance et d’évènement. Cette première définition permet de délimiter les scènes de danse par rapport aux scènes de cortège, de parade, de duel, et de distinguer les danseurs d’autres personnages récurrents de l’iconographie étrusque comme les « orants ». Dans un second temps, l’étude typologique et l’analyse sérielle des scènes de danse permet de dresser un répertoire étrusque de 2143 positions corporelles, et ainsi de préciser la définition de l’image de la danse. Cet axe permet d’identifier les différentes positions corporelles, ainsi que les gestes, les accessoires des acteurs, leurs caractéristiques physiques, et les objets et les lieux de la danse. Cette identification systématique est accompagnée de l’étude des interactions corporelles, gestuelles, vestimentaires, ou colorés. Délimiter le répertoire iconographique de la danse étrusque implique aussi d’en définir les modalités d’élaboration et la porosité. Les données sont ainsi replacées dans un contexte géographique et historique afin de repérer les particularités de l’iconographie étrusque, de distinguer les modèles étrangers et les réélaborations. La mise en série révèle que la comparaison avec l’iconographie grecque s’impose pour certaines postures. Mais les imagiers sélectionnent et agencent selon une disposition qui s’adapte aux pratiques étrusques de l’image. Les Étrusques ont ainsi puisé dans un répertoire grec des postures puis les ont adaptées et enrichies, à l’image de l’adaptation de l’alphabet grec en Étrurie. La diffusion des éléments constitutifs de l’image étrusque de la danse d’une cité étrusque à une autre permet de délimiter un répertoire iconographique préromain commun, mais aussi des choix locaux. Nous relevons en particulier les cas de Chiusi et de Tarquinia. A côté d’un répertoire commun, les deux cités ont développé chacune des solutions différentes qui répondent à des constructions propres de l’image. Dans un dernier temps enfin, sont étudiés les différents types de danse relevés, ainsi que le statut et la fonction des différents acteurs. Il s’agit de comprendre, par une orientation historique et anthropologique, et lorsqu’il est possible de le relever, l’enchaînement de ces danses, leur fonction, leurs différentes phases et leur place dans les pratiques rituelles de l’Italie préromaine. De cette étude découlent des questions quant à l’utilisation de l’image étrusque de la danse. Il s’avère en effet qu’une sélection des types de danse et des postures est opérée par les imagiers. Dans ce cadre, c'est sur le fonctionnement et le système de l'image, comparée à un langage, que nous avons mis l'accent. La direction adoptée dans ce troisième axe est aussi iconologique et vise à déchiffrer l'image de la danse étrusque en s'orientant vers le structuralisme et la sémiotique. L’étude a abouti à la conclusion selon laquelle les postures et les éléments visuels qui composent l’iconographie étrusque de la danse étaient sélectionnés et agencés dans des programmes iconographiques donnés, selon leur signification, leur portée discursive, et la fonction et la temporalité du rituel auquel ils font référence, puis adaptés à la fonction rituelle du médium sur lequel ils sont agencés. / From the iconographical sources, the only available, a corpus of 526 objects has been selected, irrespective of the medium, and from Tirrenian, Campanian and Po plain Etruria. Besides explaining and delineating the corpus of the representations of Etruscan dance and posing the historiographical bases, this thesis proposes in the first instance to think and define the representation itself of dance. Indeed, which elements in pictures permit to define a scene of dance as such ? Can we really consider it as dance ? The confusion we note in Greek and Latin texts between danced, sports and war practices are also present in pictures. This brings to consider dance in a large sens, in terms of performance and event. This first definition permits to delineate the scenes of dance from the scenes of processions, of dueling, and to draw a distinction between dancers and other recurrent actors in the Etruscan iconography such as the « orans ». In a second phase, the typological and serial analysis of representations of dance has permitted to raise an Etruscan repertoire of 2143 body postures, and thus to precise the definition of the pictures of dance. This axis has thus contributed to identify the different body positions, but also the gestures, the actors’ props, the actors’ physical features, the objects and places of dance. This systematic identification is accompanied by the study of coloured, clothing, gestural, and body interactions. Delineating the iconographical repertoire of Etruscan dance also implies to define the conditions of its elaboration and its porosity. The datas are thus replaced in a geographic and historic – Ancient Mediterranean – context in order to identify the foreign patterns and the reworked ones. The connection in series reveal that the comparison with Greek iconography is necessary to better understand some body positions. But the painters select and dispose according to the Etruscan practices of pictures making. Thus, the Etruscans digged into a Greek repertoire for some postures and then adapted and enriched them, such as their adaptation of the Greek alphabet in Etruria. The spread of the constitutive éléments of the Etruscan pictures of dance from a city to another permits to delineate a mutual and shared Preroman iconographical repertoire, but also local choices and adaptations. On this point, the cases of Tarquinia and Chiusi has been studied. Besides a common iconographical repertoire, in the two cities different visual solutions has been developped, linked to own pictures constructions. As a final step, the different types of dance previously delineated are studied further, such as the status and the function of the different actors. It aims to understant, thanks to an anthropological and historical approach – and when it’s possible –, the sequences and chaining of the different dances, their diffent phases and their place in the ritual practices of Preroman Italy. From this point, the question of the use of the Etruscan pictures of dance has been raised. And it has been highlighted that a precise selection of types of dance and of body positions has been made by the artists. In this frame, it’s the functioning and the system of the pictures – compared to a language –, which have been emphasized. The orientation taken in this third axis is also iconological and aim to decrypt and better understand the Etruscan pictures of dance in which the visual elements and the body postures are selected and disposed, in the iconographical program in which they are used, according their signification and their discursive dimension, and adapted to the ritual function of the medium on which they are disposed.

The ritual music written for the Compline service of the Liturgy of the Hours, Into Your Hands, is analyzed using an ontological and phenomenological approach, which seeks to answer how such sound/musical phenomena wed to the specific ritual dynamics of Compline in their own right can create a potential for encounter with the Divine. The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s understanding of encounter is used to show that the sound/musical phenomena in itself bears similarities with the nature of the Judeo/Christian God, and such a nature is revealed to be both irreducibly non-conceptual as well as an entity that establishes the ontological actuality of one’s being. Studies in the beginnings of humanity at large as well as the beginnings of the individual fetus reveal that an integrated expression of music and ritual can be said to have formed the impetus of such ontological beginnings through encounter. Therefore, one of the first sounds heard in the womb - that of water (or amniotic fluid) - constitutes what may be an archetypal sound of encounter. The phenomenological effects of such an archetype are analyzed in the music of Into Your Hands through topics such as the loss of aural perspective, immersion, dynamic swells, cyclic harmonic progressions, and simultaneity. Works of other composers who use similar techniques are discussed.

[ES] RESUMEN La presente investigación pretende despertar reflexiones, emociones y acciones acerca del performance como herramienta ritual ante el cruce de dos acontecimientos, la muerte de un ser querido y la migración. A partir de que comencé un proceso migratorio como mexicana en España, viví diversos acontecimientos que transformaron mi manera de percibir y estar en el mundo. El más revelador de todos fue experimentar la muerte de mi padre a distancia. Este suceso detonó una fuerte necesidad creativa que se expresó por medio de la acción. Así, los performances que mi familia y yo elaboramos se convirtieron en testimonio de la multiplicidad de factores que intervienen en el lejano fallecimiento de un ser querido. Observar tal complejidad como artista y migrante, me llevó a investigar estos performances desde una perspectiva feminista y descolonial, siendo una de las principales motivaciones la escasa bibliografía existente, así como la relación que establecí con otros cuerpos migrantes que han atravesado procesos de duelo similares. Las metodologías se insertan dentro de las prácticas analíticas creativas, combinando la autoetnografía y la investigación basada en artes. Estas prácticas transforman los paradigmas de objetividad y universalidad para proponer un conocimiento encarnado y situado en una realidad local y global a la vez. De esta forma, al hablar desde mi experiencia, puedo profundizar en elementos emocionales/racionales, "corazonando" la investigación y poniendo nombre y rostro a quienes incorporamos dicha realidad. Así, hablar desde mi cuerpo como mujer migrante es una postura política que desmitifica el discurso moderno/colonial caracterizado por la banalización, invisibilización y menosprecio de conceptos como el de muerte y migración. El desarrollo del trabajo explora una serie de performances culturales y artísticos realizados entre 2012 y 2018 alrededor de la muerte de mi padre. En base a la sedimentación de una experiencia sentida, se realiza un ejercicio de traducción a través de un tejido de textos visuales y escritos. Posteriormente, se revisan las interpretaciones e implicaciones de dicho tejido basándose una autoetnografía performativa. Esta revisión crítica y creativa explora los siguientes aportes de la tesis: Recuperar la importancia de la dimensión simbólica del performance, visibilizar el valor de las migrantes y nuestras familias transnacionales como agentes creativos y políticos, desjerarquizar las prácticas del performance en el camino hacia la reformulación de "otras" teorías del arte, aprender de los muertos como una estrategia de descolonización del saber y transformar los hábitos moderno/coloniales en la Universidad. Las referencias teóricas y prácticas han sido muchas y muy diversas, pero de manera general cabe mencionar los aportes artísticos y críticos del Instituto Hemisférico de Performance y Política y las Pedagogías decoloniales compiladas por Catherine Walsh. / [CAT] RESUM La present investigació pretén despertar reflexions, emocions i accions sobre el performance com a eina ritual davant l'encreuament de dos es-deveniments, la mort d'un ser estimat i la migració. A partir de que vaig començar un procés migratori com a mexicana a Espanya, vaig viure diver-sos esdeveniments que van transformar la meua manera de percebre i estar en el món. El més revelador de tots va ser experimentar la mort del meu pare a distància. Aquest succés va detonar una forta necessitat crea-tiva que es va expressar per mitjà de l'acció. Així, els performances que la meua família i jo elaborarem es van convertir en testimoni de la multiplici-tat de factors que intervenen en la llunyana defunció d'un ser estimat. Observar tal complexitat com a artista i migrant, em va portar a investigar aquests performances des d'una perspectiva feminista i decolonial, sent una de les principals motivacions l'escassa bibliografia existent, així com la relació que vaig establir amb altres cossos migrants que han travessat pro-cessos de duel similars. Les metodologies s'insereixen dins de les pràctiques analítiques creatives, combinant la autoetnografía i la investigació basada en arts. Aquestes pràctiques transformen els paradigmes d'objectivitat i universalitat per a proposar un coneixement encarnat i situat en una realitat local i global alhora. D'aquesta forma, en parlar des de la meua experiència, puc apro-fundir en elements emocionals/racionals, "corazonando" la investigació i posant nom i rostre als qui incorporem aquesta realitat. Així, parlar des del meu cos com a dona migrant és una postura política que desmitifica el dis-curs modern/colonial caracteritzat per la banalització, invisibilización i menyspreu de conceptes com els de mort i migració. El desenvolupament del treball explora una sèrie de performances cultu-rals i artístics realitzats entre 2012 i 2018 al voltant de la mort del meu pare. Sobre la base de la sedimentació d'una experiència sentida, es realitza un exercici de traducció a través d'un teixit de textos visuals i escrits. Posteri-orment, es revisen les interpretacions i implicacions d'aquest teixit basant-se una autoetnografía performativa. Aquesta revisió crítica i creativa ex-plora les següents aportacions de la tesi: Recuperar la importància de la dimensió simbòlica del performance, visibilitzar el valor de les migrants i les nostres famílies transnacionals com a agents creatius i polítics, desjerarqui-zar les pràctiques del performance en el camí cap a la reformulació de "al-tres" teories de l'art, aprendre dels morts com una estratègia de descolo-nització del saber i transformar els hàbits modern/colonials en la Universi-tat. Les referències teòriques i pràctiques han sigut moltes i molt diverses, però de manera general cal esmentar les aportacions artístiques i crítics de l'Institut Hemisfèric de Performance i Política i les Pedagogies decoloniales compilades per Catherine Walsh. / [EN] SUMMARY This research aims to awaken reflections, emotions and actions about performance as a ritual tool before the crossing of two events, the death of a loved one and migration. Since I began a migratory process as a Mexican in Spain, I lived through various events that transformed my way of perceiving and being in the world. The most revealing of all was to experience my father's death from a geographical distance. This event triggered a strong creative need that was expressed through action. Thus, the performances that my family and I produced became a testimony to the multiplicity of factors involved in the (geographically) distant death of a loved one. Observing such complexity as an artist and a migrant, led me to investigate these performances from a feminist and decolonial perspective, one of the main motivations being the scarce existing bibliography, as well as the relationship I established with other migrant bodies that have gone through similar mourning processes. The methodologies are inserted into creative analytical practices, combining autoethnography and arts-based research. These practices transform the paradigms of objectivity and universality to propose an incarnated knowledge situated in a local and global reality at the same time. In this way, speaking from my experience, I can explore emotional/rational elements, "corazonando" the research and giving a name and face to those who incorporate this reality. Thus, the fact of speaking from my body as a migrant woman is a political posture that demystifies the modern/colonial discourse characterized by the banalization, invisibilization and undervaluation of concepts such as death and migration. The development of this work explores a series of cultural and artistic performances carried out between 2012 and 2018, centred on my father's death. Based on the sedimentation of a felt experience, a translation exercise is carried out through the weaving of visual and written texts. Subsequently, the interpretations and implications of this fabric are reviewed based on a performative autoethnography. This critical and creative review explores the following contributions of the thesis: To recover the importance of the symbolic dimension of performance. To make visible the value of migrants and our transnational families as creative and political agents. To de-hierarchize performance practices on the way to the reformulation of "other" art theories. To learn from the dead as a strategy of decolonization of knowledge and to transform modern/colonial habits in academia. The theoretical and practical references have been many and very diverse, but in general it is worth mentioning the artistic and critical contributions of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics and the decolonial Pedagogies compiled by Catherine Walsh. / En primer lugar agradezco el apoyo de la beca INBA-CONACYT por ayudarme a sustentar económicamente este proyecto. / Fajardo Montaño, O. (2019). Performance por la lejana muerte de mi padre: autoetnografía artística y descolonial desde mi cuerpo migrante [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/118803 / TESIS

Contemporary American capital punishment contains many processual elements, such as the prisoner's last meal and the cleansing of his body immediately before death, that serve no concrete, practical purpose but share a nature with ritual practices. In this project, I utilize a hermeneutic phenomenological lens to identify and list these ritual elements. I also use concepts drawn from the structural functionalist tradition to both analyze the specific purposes the elements serve within individual parts of the death penalty and to discuss the overarching result of the inclusion of these elements within the process as a whole. Ultimately, I find that the ritual elements present in the capital punishment process serve a social control purpose, insulating and reinforcing the death penalty as a whole. Ritual works to do this by controlling the behavior and image of the prisoner and emotionally soothing both participants of the process and the public at large.

The present study investigates the contribution of religious community involvement to adolescent development, including the processes of identity formation and moral development. Three key areas are explored: 1) the precursors of faith community membership; 2) the process by which a belief system is chosen; and 3) the ways in which religious belief is supported by a faith community once it is joined. Of specific interest are the ways in which religious community integration nurtures the evolution of religious belief, including through intergenerational support, religious peer groups, and a connection to the ritual and history of a faith tradition. In particular, the influence of peers is examined, both for its role in the initial establishment of a religious identity as well as its role in the maintenance and growth of religious belief. The current study utilizes a phenomenological approach to the qualitative data analysis of adolescent interviews with subjects ranging in age from 12-21 years, from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith communities, representing a religiously and ethnically diverse sample. The narratives of participants have been analyzed to allow for the distillation of themes across contexts. This phenomenological analytic framework allows for exploratory hypothesis generating on dimensions of developmental support derived from religious community.

This dissertation is an effort to understand the processes and systems housed within the infrastructure of a dynamic urban environment. Jeppestown, or Jeppe, as it is known by its inhabitants, is a post-industrial wasteland on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg CBD (central business district). This rich cultural landscape was formed over generations by optimistic prospectors intrigued by the illusion of riches posed by the City of Gold. The project is focused on linking and transforming voids within the urban fabric, which are threatened by gentrification, into a healthy and productive network of public space. Guided by mapping and observation techniques, the designer can formulate the conception for a landscape architectural intervention aimed at maintaining and amplifying certain aspects coinciding with the ritualistic activities of everyday life as established within Jeppestown. Anchored by a series of social and economic nodes, a spinal development emerges, addressing thresholds between public and private realms by investigating edges as vessels for environmental and social systems. The designer uses a combination of existing characteristics of this urban artefact and newly introduced sustainable design principles to carve a coherent and productive public environment from an amalgamated entity termed the landscape slate. / Dissertation (ML(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Architecture / ML(Prof) / Unrestricted