Thesis (M. A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / The purpose of this study is to analyse the building, use and caring of traditional Tsonga houses. Data was collected by means of interviews. An interview is an instrument of collecting information by asking the participants questions. The participants of this study were male and female Tsonga elders. The research area of this study is Ndhambi, Mageva, Maphata and Makhuva villages, which are found in the Mopani District of Limpopo Province. This study attempts to answer the following questions:  How were traditional Tsonga houses built?  What were traditional Tsonga houses used for?  How were traditional Tsonga houses cared and repaired?  Why are the causes of gradual disappearance of Tsonga culture? The findings of this study revealed that men and women were responsible for building traditional houses and they were assisted by their female and male children. The type of houses built was rondavels without windows and they used poles, grass, stones, water and soil for building the houses. They decorated the walls of the traditional houses with clay and black and red soil mixed with dung. Traditional houses were taken care of and repaired by men and women assisted by their children using equipments such as poles, reeds, grass and soil which were collected in the veld. They used the houses for sleeping, cooking, girls initiation and worshipping of their forefathers. Lastly, The Tsonga nation is no more building the traditional houses because they have been influenced by foreign cultures to abandon their own culture. KEY CONCEPTS Houses, traditional, role, building, care of, decoration, men, women, boys, girls.

Bibliography: leaves 166-172. / Isihlonipho Sabafazi (the Xhosa women's language of respect) is a language in which syllables occurring in the names of menfolk are avoided by women. Thie thesis attempts to place the practice in it social context by applying both descriptive and analytical methodologies. The thesis include a literature survey and a critique on the dynamics of gender and language. The results of interviews conducted in three areas, one urban and two rural, are analysed and tabulated. A glossary of substitute words is included.

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate politeness strategies which a Japanese person applied in a series of intercultural communications. These strategies used in several different situations were examined from a cultural/social viewpoint as well as intercultural pragmatics. This research study also focuses on how people from different cultural backgrounds evaluate a Japanese person's behavior. By analyzing the results obtained from the research, this study investigates how a Japanese person commonly conceptualized politeness in a certain situations, and what that person did to demonstrate politeness in an intercultural environment. Role-playing activity, questionnaire, and interview were used as research instruments. In the role-playing activities, two actors (one from Hong Kong, and the other from Japan) acted out scenarios, which included potential face-threatening situations. Three different groups of people across two cultures then evaluated the Japanese actor's behaviors by filling out the questionnaire. Interviews were also conducted with some of the participants from these three groups. The results show that there are significant differences in the evaluation of politeness, not only between two different cultures, but also among people from the same culture. This suggests that some politeness strategies are not necessarily culture specific. Keywords: Politeness; Strategy; Evaluation; Hong Kong; Japan

No description available.

This research analyses Qing women's writings and paratexts to explore how women applied their agency to re-shape the nature of everyday practice in the boudoir, arguing that dutiful activities were not only responsibilities for the fulfillment of womanhood, but also a location for self-expression and a channel to cross the boundary of private sphere and public society. The main body of this study examines activities concerning rong 容 (appearance) and gong 功/工 (achievements/work), the practical aspects in side 四德 (four womanly virtues) defined in the Confucian values. In the part about women's appearance, this research will examine women's self-adornment and looking in the mirror, and in the part about women's work, it focuses on garment making and cooking. On this basis, this study rethinks the connotation of "four virtues," and further explores women's agency manifested in their everyday details in the late imperial period. Scholars in gender history and women's literature have conducted fruitful studies on multiple aspects of women's daily life, such as women's production and consumption, material life, household duties, literary pursuit, leisure activities, and social communications. This research attempts to examine a less-studied aspect of women's self-representation: their subjective experience in the practical aspects of the "four female virtues." How did common practices about rong and gong relate to women's opinion on body and material, inspire their emotions, and reflect their rich inner reality? How did women empower themselves through these everyday activities and in turn transform duties into a platform of self-construction and self-expression? This research focuses on the Qing dynasty, a transitional period in history that bridged traditional and modern China, to explore how women's agency was constructed in, manifested through, and embedded in the commonest everyday domestic practices. Specifically, this research focuses on four particular activities that represented rong and gong: self-adornment, looking in the mirror, garment making, and food management. I argue that women in the Qing dynasty not merely fulfilled but also tactfully transformed the Confucian expectation of "four virtues" through common practices in the everyday, and in the meanwhile, they empowered themselves by creating personally meaningful worlds within the inner quarters.

Why does the Good News of the Gospel find greater response in some areas of the world than it does in other areas - even where there is a fairly close relationship geographically and culturally? This is one of the problems that the evangelical church is facing in some areas of Ecuador today. After many years of labor in some areas there has been little fruit, while in others there has been an abundant harvest - even to the amazement of some of the missionaries involved. It is the purpose of this project and report to investigate this paradox to see if any light may be thrown upon the problem. Thus it is hoped to further the understanding of those who are so deeply concerned after so many years of toil.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / El propósito de este estudio es realizar una descripción general de las actitudes de los padres de familias mexicanas en la ciudad de Indianápolis sobre el uso y mantenimiento del español. Se intenta describir los diferentes puntos de vista y actitudes que se consideran cuando los padres de familias deciden promover o no promover el uso, y por consiguiente, el mantenimiento del español por sus hijos. Además, se analizan otros parámetros relacionados con las actitudes, el bilingüismo, la educación bilingüe, y el mantenimiento del español y su relación con el mantenimiento de la cultura mexicana.

Bibliography: pages 180-207. / Gender studies in various disciplines, particularly anthropology, have shown that the opposition of masculine : feminine is commonly used to structure other cultural contrasts, and that the representation of this opposition in cultural products is in turn implicated in the cultural construction of gender content. This bidirectional problematic, supplementing the more limited critique of gender 'bias' and masculinist models, is the focus of this research into archaeological materials. Rock art is the principal archaeological 'trace' analysed. Because the impetus to gender studies comes principally from the critical standpoint of feminism, analyses of gender and gendering in archaeological materials are evaluated in the context of gender issues in the present day, in terms of archaeological 'reconstructions' as legitimising the existing gender order. Theoretical influences include feminism, hermeneutics, marxism, (post)- structuralism, semiotics, and discourse theory. Aspects of language, and, particularly, the oral narratives of various San groups - the /Xam, G /wi, !Kung, Nharo, and others - are examined in order to establish the way in which masculinity and femininity are/have been conceptualised and differentiated by San peoples. This is followed by an assessment of the manner of and extent to which the masculine: feminine opposition informs narrative content and structure. The analysis of language texts permits an approach to the representation of this opposition in non-language cultural texts (such as visual art, space). Particular constructions of masculinity and femininity, and a number of gendered contrasts (pertaining to form, orientation, time, number, quality) are identified. Gender symbolism is linked to the themes of rain and fertility/ continuity, and analysed in political terms, according to the feminist materialist contention that, in non-class societies, gender opposition is potentially the impetus to social change. Gender(ing) is more fundamental to San cultural texts than has been, recognised, being present in a range of beliefs which are linked by their gender symbolism. I utilise a 'fertility hypothesis', derived from a reading of the ethnographies, in order to explain various elements of Southern African rock art, Well-preserved (thus relatively recent) paintings, principally from sites in the Drakensberg and south-western Cape, were selected. Features interpreted via this hypothesis include: images of humans, the motif of the thin red line fringed with white dots, 'elephants in boxes', therianthropic figures, and 'androgynous' figures, including the eland. The spatial organisation of the art, the significance of non-realistic perspectives, and the problem of the numerical male dominance of the art are also interpreted from this standpoint. The analysis permits critique, of the theorisation of gender and ideology in rock art studies, and of the biophysical determinism implicit in current rock art studies, in which attempts are made to explain many features of the art by reference to trance states, altered consciousness and neurophysiological constitution. Rain, rather than trance, is proposed as the central element of San ritual/religious practices. Finally, the treatment of (or failure to consider) gender(ing) in the archaeological record is situated in relatio.n to contemporary gender ideologies, in the contexts of archaeological theory and practice.

Throughout the long nineteenth century, the European Great Powers and, after 1865, the United States competed for global dominance, and they regularly used their armies to do so. While many historians have commented on the culture of these armies’ officer corps, few have looked to the acculturation process itself that occurred at secondary schools and academies for future officers, and even fewer have compared different formative systems. In this study, I home in on three distinct models of officer acculturation—the British public schools, the monarchical cadet schools in Imperial Germany, Austria, and Russia, and the US Military Academy—which instilled the shared and recursive sets of values and behaviors that constituted European and American officer cultures. Specifically, I examine not the curricula, policies, and structures of the schools but the subterranean practices, rituals, and codes therein. What were they, how and why did they develop and change over time, which values did they transmit and which behaviors did they perpetuate, how do these relate to nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century social and cultural phenomena, and what sort of ethos did they produce among transatlantic army officers? Drawing on a wide array of sources in three languages, including archival material, official publications, letters and memoirs, and contemporary nonfiction and fiction, I have painted a highly detailed picture of subterranean life at the institutions in this study. The reader will find that although practices, rituals, and codes varied from one type of school to the next, the values and behaviors they inculcated were quite similar . . . and quite anachronistic for the liberalizing societies that the products of the schools were meant to serve.

Submitted in partial fullfilment for the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of IsiZulu namaGugu in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 1999. / This research work is an effort to scrutinize the custom of cultural preparations for pregnancy, following the procedures and African traditions because culture is the backbone of human life and the most important factor in human development. In this thesis, explanations are also given for the infertility of young brides and what is done traditionally to solve such problems. Problems of complications during the gestation period which result in miscarriages are analyzed as well as procedures which must be undertaken after a miscarriage in order to prevent a recurrence thereof, by following African methods. What encouraged the researcher was to bring to the awareness of the Black Nation the need to look back to their ancestors' customs which they lived before the advent of hospitals and clinics. It has to dawn their minds that the numerous health problems which they encounter these days and which white doctors fail to cure, can be controlled if they stick to their customs. Some of these problems is failure of women to conceive when they are already married as well as miscarriages. Most of these problems emanate from the fact that the majority have lost their traditional practices and have stuck to those of nations belonging to the Western culture. Therefore, the knowledge which is gathered in this research emphasizes the gist of the research which says: "The science of the Blacks, of using traditional herbs and of communicating with their ancestors in order to get help, worked for the great grandparents, is stiff working nowadays, and it will continue to work effectively for the next generations as long as they practice it. The first chapter indicates the objectives and the incentives which inspired the researcher to research this topic, following the processes of the African culture after experiencing the pain suffered by African women who lose their marriages because of not bearing children, as well as suffering miscarriages which is caused by neglecting or looking down upon their customs, or because of not believing in them or ignorance about them. The predecessors who have researched and written something on this topic are also highlighted in this chapter. The second chapter focuses on the research which has been done on African rituals which should be done for men and women when they reach puberty which have an impact on their fertility when they have or have not been observed. Other customs are performed when the girl has been engaged, prior to her wedding day and they are carried on when she leaves her home right up to when she gets to the groom's place on the wedding day. This encourages both the maternal and paternal ancestors to co-operate between themselves in providing the married couples with children and overall wellbeing in their married life. In the same chapter there is a discussion of traditional preparations for enabling the bride to fall pregnant after marriage when she encounters problems of not conceiving even when customary precautions have been practiced. The third chapter focuses on emphasizing the causes of failure to conceive in the bride and what should be done, using traditional methods so as to overcome these problems. Different types of diseases that lead to barrenness or infertility, ancestral spirits, African traditions Which have been neglected, different ways of witchcraft as well as different types of snakes of love potions which eventually destroy the blood clots where from the feotus develop have been highlighted. The fourth chapter focuses on revealing the causes of miscarriages and resolutions thereof the African way. Close scrutiny is given to the different ways of sorcery which lead to miscarriages, dreams of man-made bad spirits and those of the deceased, and infectious and non-infectious diseases which may have a detrimental effect on the unborn baby. Focus has also been placed on the importance of cleansing the woman who has had a miscarriage, being cleansed from bad luck using the stomach contents of a goat. What happens to a man who gets intimate with an unpleased woman is also clarified in this research work. The fifth chapter is an analysis where the research is being analyzed. There are also recommendations which can be followed to open the eyes of the community so as to get their problems solved. These recommendations encourage especially Black people to stick to their customs which is a way of keeping traditional rituals or practices as well as their traditional religion so that even if they follow the Western culture but they should not do away with the science of their black ancestors.