The understanding of ancient societies is often mainly based on how their burial sites have been interpreted. This is especially true for ancient societies where the burial sites may be the only remaining traces which can be studied. With a classical model, their analysis can yield valuable results on certain areas such as identifying status relationships and spatial groupings. The social structure that originally affected how the burial ceremony was conducted, however has largely been a subject of speculation. To analyse this structure a new theoretical foundation is required. In this thesis a ritualization perspective rooter in ritual theory has been implemented. It´s inclusion allows for the study of the structuring processes within the burials by identifying the normative actions which constituted the ritual. This approach requires methods capable of recreating that the ritual actions through the funerary remains. For this reason, the methodological approach employed has been largely rooted in archaeothanatology and taphonomy. In this thesis the Lapita culture which was active in Melanesia ca. 3000 BP has been in focus. This culture was chosen since its societal structure has so far been speculated widely but so far, no consensus has been reached. Only two Burial sites of adequate size and quality have been found to date, Reber-Rakival in Papua New Guinea and Teouma in Watom. These sites have been analysed previously and the findings suggest a rich variation in the funerary ritual implemented at the sites. Ritual has long been linked to societal structure but there are few methods which allow an archaeologist to study this structure through the ritual. The methods have been employed on physical remains from Reber-Rakival and recorded images from Teouma with the aim of clarifying the funerary ceremony and identifying the normative actions at both sites. The addition of previous research and ethnographic data was incorporated to compare and further clarify the interpretations. The resulting interpretation suggests that the burial practice and societal structure at the different sites had some overlap in how individuals of differing genders were positioned and treated. The extent to which this treatment was at the core of the ritual however, varied. In Teouma there was a clearly defined androcentric influence which was prevalent in both how the bodies were positioned and to what extent they were interfered with. This differed to the societal structure which affected the burials in Reber-Rakival which could not be as clearly defined given the greater level of disturbance at the site but was clearly not as extreme in favour of males. This indicates that different societal structures were in place but at present it cannot be considered as a conclusive estimation, further research is required to test it. / Tolkandet av forntida samhällen har ofta till stor del baserats på hur deras begravningsformer tolkas. Dessa undersökningar kan ge goda resultat men har oftast varit fokuserade på att identifiera exempelvis status och spatiala grupperingar. Den sociala strukturen som påverkade begravningsceremonin undersöks sällan närmare än via bred spekulation i den klassiska modellen. För att studera denna sociala struktur genom begravningsritualen närmare krävs teoretiska perspektiv som sällan brukas inom klassisk arkeologi. Ett teoretiskt perspektiv med vilket just denna struktur kan studeras är ritualization. Genom detta perspektiv kan de identifierbara normativa handlingarna inom en begravningsritual ses som en återspegling av den sociokulturellt strukturerande processen som påverkade ritualens utförande. Detta kräver metoder som kan återskapa handlingarna genom de material som finns tillhanda. I denna uppsats har Lapitakulturen i Melanesien som var verksam ca. 3000 år sedan legat i fokus för att se hur effektiv denna metod är på en relativt okänd kultur var sociala struktur är oöppen för vid spekulation i nuläget. Bara två större gravplatser från Lapitakulturen har identifierats i nuläget, Reber-Rakival i Papua Nya Guinea och Teouma i Vanuatu, så analysen har begränsats till dessa två platser.  Metoderna som använts har sina rötter i arkaeothanatologi och tafonomi har implementerats på fysiska material från Reber-Rakival och bildbevis från Teouma. Endast handlingar som direkt påverkade kroppens position inkluderades och ämnade att klargöra den rituella processen med focus på normativa handlingar och identifieringen av potentiella indikatorer för att tolka hur den rituella strukturen kan tolkas. Jämförelse med resultat från tidigare analyser och etnografiska exempel utfördes för att testa tolkningarna. Resultaten av dessa metoder visade att den rituella processen hade vissa likheter mellan de två platserna. Speciellt i att de varierade beroende på den gravlagdes kön. Vid sin kärna var det dock olika. Detta kunde ses i de mycket tydligare tecken på en klar separation mellan könen med en klar androcentrisk agenda i de rituella handlingarna i Teouma jämfört med Reber-Rakival där de rituella normerna var mer svårtolkade då platsen var mer störd men indikerar att den rådande strukturen inte var lika extrem i fördel för manliga individer. Denna uppskattning kan dock i nuläget inte ses som en slutgiltig tolkning, ytterligare studier krävs för att testa den.

Ma pratique de plasticienne a été bouleversée il y a une douzaine d'années. Ce qui fit évènement : un sachet de thé accroché à une fenêtre. J'ai commencé alors mes recherches autour du thé. Ce travail est le fruit d'expériences qui engagent une sorte de périple intérieur nouveau.Dans ce champ d'expériences, comment ne pas s'égarer, quelles procédures convoquer afin de ne pas sombrer dans l'errance absolue? L'avancée se fait dans un entre-deux, entre errance et ritualisation. Le premier concept ouvre le champ des possibles, le second structure, jalonne afin d'éviter de sombrer dans le non·sens. Les deux questionnent l'espace, le temps, ils se renvoient l'un à l'autre: ainsi le rituel par son caractère répétitif peut s'assimiler à l'errance dans un espace temporel commun.Le travail de mémoire s'articule à partir du "Joumal d'errances et d'autres lieux" (en se référant au journal d'Aran et d'autre lieux de Nicolas Bouvier). Afin de répondre au sujet qui nous préoccupe, ce journal s'élabore dans une sorte de vagabondage intellectuel, sans contrainte temporelle. Le rituel de la "proella", rituel funéraire spécifique à l'île d'Ouessant a un retentissement fondamental dans mes recherches et renvoient aux deux notions fondamentales: l'errance à travers le corps du défunt mort en mer et le rituel qui met fin à cette errance. li interroge également sur la disparition, la matière à l'oeuvre, la demeure {antinomique à l'errance). Le champ qui nous intéresse est le champ poiétique tel qu'il se crée au travers de cette pratique. Il s'articule comme un va-et-vient entre l'engagement artistique et la volonté de s'interroger sur ce qui fait oeuvre en l'englobant dans une problématique plus générale dans le champ de l'art contemporain.Si l'art c'est la vie, la seule limite serait-elle la disparition de l'art? On peut se demander alors : où en sommes-nous?Comment donner plus de vie à la vie de l'art ? En tentant d'aller plus loin que la vie, cheminons nous vers une mort annoncée? Ne serait-ce pas clans ces deux extrêmes que se situerait le champ de l'art? Une telle distension peut-elle amener à ce que nous nous perdions définitivement? / My practical experience as a visual artist was completely changed twelve years ago. The event consisted in a tea bag hanging out of a window. l then started a research around Tea. This work is the fruit of several experiences leading to a kind of new inner Quest.In this field of experiences, how not to go astray? What method to apply, so that we do not end up drifting? I move on intoan intervening sphere between Drifting and Ritualizing. The first notion enlarges the scope of possibilities, the secondstructures and prepares the ground for my study, so that we avoid none-sense. Both call space and time into question, both refer us to one another - Due to their repetitive nature, Rituals can appear similar to Drifting through sorne commontemporal Space.The Gesture of Remembrance will be performed from the "journal d'errance et d'autres lieux" (with reference to Nicolas Bouvier's "Joumal d'Aran d d'autres lieux"). To tackle the subject under study, this journal hinges upon some sort intellectuall drifting without temporal constraint. The Ritual of "proella", which is a funeral Ritual specifie to the Isle of Ouessant, impacts on our rescarch fundamentally,and points to two essential notions . drifting along through the Corpse of the deceased Person who died at sea, and the Ritual which puts an end to this Drifting. It also makes think about Disappearance, Matter and Resting Place (the reverse of Drifting'). The field that interests us is the poietical field as created by this usage. It is developed as a to and fro movement between the Artist's Engagement and the Will to Wonder what the work of Art is, including it within a more general problematics in the field of contemporary Art. If Art is Life, would the only limit be the Disappearance of Art? One may then wonder. Where do we stand? How to render Art's Life more animated? \Vhile we strive to go beyond Life, arc we progressing towards an announced Death? Isn't it between the two extremes that the field of Art is to be found ? Can such a Distension make us get lost without remedy ?

Disruption is something that we must negotiate as part of our everyday lives. The context of disruption can vary in nature from being positive to being negative in nature. However, the emotional effects of the disruption have not been investigated in the social psychological literature. This study utilizes structuralized ritualization affect theory of social exchange, attribution theory, and the theory of relational cohesion in order to investigate the effects of disruption on the overall positive emotion of the actors involved and their feelings of cohesiveness with regard to their group.

Disruption is something that we must negotiate as part of our everyday lives. The context of disruption can vary in nature from being positive to being negative in nature. However, the emotional effects of the disruption have not been investigated in the social psychological literature. This study utilizes structuralized ritualization affect theory of social exchange, attribution theory, and the theory of relational cohesion in order to investigate the effects of disruption on the overall positive emotion of the actors involved and their feelings of cohesiveness with regard to their group.

No description available.

The aim of this study is to generate new knowledge of the educationalpractice of a pre-school and of how it may contribute to the understandingof doing gender. The ethnographic study examines the place and practiceof a Steiner Waldorf pre-school, and it focuses specifically on materiality,age, spirituality and the intentions of the pre-school teachers. Fieldworkhas been conducted for a period of one and a half years in one pre-school.The methods used are mainly participant observation and interviews withthe pre-school teachers. The results highlight the importance of the materialand spatial dimensions of the pre-school for the constitution of children’sgender. The concepts of performativity and ritualization have beenused as the main analytical tools. The study draws on the scope of theseconcepts as understood by Judith Butler and Catherine Bell. On the basis of the analysis of the empirical material, a theoretical concept,situated decoding of gender, is suggested. It is argued that what atfirst glance can be interpreted as a ‘female universe’, turns out to be a placewhere gender is made non-relevant through an unintentional, yet powerfulongoing process of naturalization. The situated decoding of gender is madepossible because of certain features in this pre-school. Firstly, a repetitivestructure characterizing educational practice has been observed. This isbased on a principle of rhythm reciprocally related to the alternations betweencontinuity and change. Secondly, there is a clear spatial and materialdemarcation that the study argues makes the pre-school an enclosed space,in the sense of being a place of nurturing and protection, where the boundariesbetween home and pre-school are maintained. Thirdly, the performativeforce of the ritualized preschool practices further enhances the decodingof gender. The ritualization highlights and supports the spiritual dimensionin the pedagogy, which sidelines the doing of gender. Fourthly, theteachers contributed to the decoding of gender through the consistency oftheir everyday actions.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第15656号 / 工博第3314号 / 新制||工||1500(附属図書館) / 28193 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻 / (主査)教授 岡田 憲夫, 教授 藤井 聡, 教授 矢守 克也 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

This essay focuses on two cases studies that include two game designers’ views of meaning-making construction in games and an analysis of their corresponding games. This isplaced in relation to the late modern Sweden context. The study examines how the designersconceive purposeful play by employing a multi-disciplinary approach consistingof Pruyser’s three-world model, Bell’s ritualization framework, and, Howard’s quest theory.Such a study is relevant due to the new ways meaning-making is actively producedwithin games and contributes to the understanding of meaning-making in late modernSweden. The two designers work at DICE and Starbreeze Studios and were interviewedusing a semi-structured methodology. The data is analyzed with a qualitative narrativetechnique applying an inductive theoretical lens to analyze the data thematically. Bothrespondents illustrate patterns of meaning-making in their construction of games wherefunctionality is central and vital to produce purposeful play. The construction of illusionisticgame worlds encloses on feelings of authenticity to the world’s structure. Realistic,autistic, and, object symbolism operate to mold the world structure and are connected tothe designers’ genre. The designer from DICE promotes realistic worlds and the designerfrom Starbreeze Studios autistic representations. Ritualized practice within the worldfocuses on combat differentiation techniques to legitimize violent practice. The designers’realistic world construction makes combat plausible within its border and autistic worldsare empowered by back-stories. Opposition is seen as essential in both cases. The correspondinggame shows similar tendencies except that many of the quest themes are intactalthough the designers themselves consider the games to use less of the mythologicalformulae. Characters, themes, and, allegorical imagery was used to amplify the sense ofdialectic oppositions and logical opposition where the enemy is always darker. However,the hero and heroes are considerably grimmer compared to the stereotypical hero. Meaningis maintained through non-allegorical quests where the player and hero are motivatedby functionality linked to opposition or emotional elements. An anti-heroic concept isemployed to construct a practical and credible hero-character that has ambivalent attributesand convincing behavior. An alteration to dark-light symbolism can also be seen inone of the cases. In relation to other studies, this essay has broaden the spectrum of thepsychology of religion in terms of fields for meaning strategies; confirming ritualizedstrategies in video games; displayed altered ways of using mythological symbols in theSwedish context; presented cultural differences in hero structures that might be based onthe Swedish context.

Traditional ritual studies approaches to the body are effective for illuminating how the body functions as an entity that absorbs and expresses a variety of social, and political dynamics; however, they are less productive for understanding the body as a physical organism. This interdisciplinary thesis applies theoretical models from cognitive science, social psychology and ritual studies to the Śrī Cakra Pūjā in order to develop a more complete understanding of the ritual body as a physical body. Using Lawrence Barsalou’s theory of embodied cognition, which focuses on the impact of human experiences on the creation and integration of neural pathways, this essay, argues that Śrī Cakra Pūjā affects the mind by shaping the neural architecture of the brain. This cognitive perspective on religious ritual practice is compared with the more traditional ritual studies approach of Catherine Bell in an effort to provide a more complete understanding of the religious ritual body, brain and mind.

The purpose of the current sequential mixed-methods study is to bring further knowledge to the field of psychology of religion concerning the role of religion for Assyrians/Syrians in Sweden. Guiding the current study are theories concerning enculturation, acculturation, ego-identity, ritualization and communitas. The central research question is: What role does religiosity have for Assyrians/Syrians in Sweden, concerning the development of ego-identity and the practice of ritualization, within a process of enculturation and acculturation? The quantitative phase of the sequential mixed-methods study uses a sample of 244 participants that were part of a previously conducted study. Descriptive statistics, comparing means, correlations, t-tests, and ANOVA are applied to analyze the data retrieved from the questionnaires. The qualitative phase uses a sample of 12 informants collected by a purposive and snowball sampling technique. The methods of data collection are semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews. The data collected are analyzed by qualitative content analysis. The results of the quantitative phase show that there is no statistically significant relationship between religiosity and self-perception of ethnicity or self- perception of being a part of the Swedish society. The results, however, show several significant correlations and differences between males and females as well as between generations. Among others, the results show a medium, positive correlation between self-perception of being Assyrian/Syrian and degrees of using the language Suryoyo with friends and family, where a greater degree of self-perception as Assyrian/Syrian is associated with a greater frequency in using the language Suryoyo with friends and family. The results show that there is a negative, medium correlation between perceived discrimination and the perception of being a part of the Swedish society as well as the perceptions concerning the degree that Swedes perceive the participants as being a part of the Swedish society where greater degrees of perceived discrimination are associated with lesser degrees of perception of being a part of the Swedish society. The results show that there is a statistically significant difference between the age groups concerning Mass attendance as well as the degree of self-perception of being religious/spiritual. The results show a statistically significant difference between males and females concerning Mass attendance, frequency of fasting, and self-perception as religious/spiritual; where females have a higher mean score than males on all measures. The results of the data analysis in the qualitative phase indicate that religiosity helps the individual to create and maintain a feeling of being a unique and separate individual either by providing a context for the individual’s identity or by being an object from which the informant differentiates. Religiosity provides the individual with the means of learning his or her first culture. The analysis identifies language to be an important component of ego-identity, enculturation, and acculturation. Discrimination, whether within the group Assyrian/Syrian or from outside the group, is seen as an involuntarily differentiation where the informant experiences attempts by others to differentiate him- or herself from the Swedish population. Indications of ritual components and certain life stages are highlighted among the informants. The implications of the study are discussed. / Syftet med följande sekventiella mixed-methods studie är att bidra med ytterligare kunskap till det religionspsykologiska fältet angående religionens betydelse för assyrier/syrianer i Sverige. Studien vägleds av teorier om ackulturation, enkulturation, ego-identitet, ritualisering och communitas. Den centrala forskningsfrågan lyder: Vilken roll har religiositet för assyrier/syrianer i Sverige i en process av enkulturation och ackulturation? Den kvantitativa fasen i studien använder sig av ett urval av 244 deltagare från en tidigare genomförd studie. Deskriptiv statistik, jämförelse av medelvärde, korrelation, t-test och ANOVA används för att analysera data i den kvantitativa fasen. Den kvalitativa fasen i studien använder sig av ett urval av tolv deltagare. Deltagarna rekryteras genom ändamålsenlig insamling och snöbollsinsamling. Deltagarna intervjuas med semi-strukturerade intervjuer och en fokusgruppintervju. Insamlat material från intervjuerna analyseras med kvalitativa innehållsanalys. Resultat från den kvantitativa fasen visar att det inte fanns ett statistiskt signifikant samband mellan religiositet, självbild etnicitet och självbild av att vara en del av det svenska samhället. Den kvantitativa fasen visar statistiska signifikanta förhållanden mellan självbild etnicitet och grad av suryoyoanvändning där större grad av självbild etnicitet är associerat med större grad av suryoyoanvändning. Ett statistiskt negativt samband visar sig mellan upplevd diskriminering och självbilden av att vara en del av det svenska samhället där större grad av upplevd diskriminering är associerat med mindre grad av självbild av att vara en del av det svenska samhället. En statistiskt signifikant relation hittas mellan åldersgrupper angående grad av deltagande i gudstjänster och självbild av att vara religiös eller andlig. En statistisk signifikant relation hittas även mellan kvinnor och män angående att delta i gudstjänster, frekvens av att fasta och självbild av att vara religiös eller andlig. Kvinnor visar sig ha ett högre medelvärde än män på dessa mått. Resultat från den kvalitativa fasen indikerar att religiositet hjälper individen att skapa och bibehålla en känsla av att vara en unik och separat individ antingen genom att erbjuda en kontext för individens identitet eller genom att vara ett objekt som individen kan differentiera sig ifrån. Religiositet förser individen med medel att lära sig sin första kultur. Den kvalitativa analysen visar även att språk är en viktig komponent av ego-identitet, enkulturation och ackulturation. Diskriminering ses som en ofrivillig differentiering av individen från den svenska befolkningen. Rituella komponenter och utvecklingsstadier identifieras bland deltagarna i den kvalitativa fasen. Studiens inverkan diskuteras. Föräldrarna rekommenderas även att sträva efter en mångfaldig uppväxt som dels inkluderar assyrisk/syrianska, dels svenska traditioner. Föräldrar bör även sträva efter att introducera sitt modersmål för barnen i syfte att premiera flerspråkighet. Flerspråkighet underlättar integration i kulturer. Föräldrar bör också stödja sina barns erfarenheter som etniska minoriteter, t.ex. diskriminering, fördomar, men även barnets vilja att vistas och integreras i det svenska samhället. Institutioner, t.ex. den svenska skolan och den syrisk ortodoxa kyrkan, bör underlätta individens integration i dess etniska och svenska traditioner. Utbildningsmässigt innebär detta att erbjuda språkkurser is individens modersmål, eller första språk. Det svenska språket bör läras ut tillsammans med svenskar för att undvika en åtskillnad. Skolor måste vara öppna för möjligheten att individer kan identifiera sig utifrån etniciteter i jämförelse med nationaliteter.