Interpretation of Maya social organization through material remains has long been a subject of speculation. The gap between data and interpretation inevitably involves the concerns and conditions of the society producing such interpretive discourse, and diverging interests and modes of analysis continue to result in alternative and often conflicting interpretations of ancient Maya society, often involving suppositions of systemic weakness that led to the collapse of its centralized or dynastic authorities in the ninth century. Currently central in such interpretations is the role of inscribed stone seats, erected by "subsidiary" or non-royal members of Maya society in "subsidiary" districts or suburbs of the major Maya polity of Copan. At issue are the problematic interpretations of these seats that have been constructed to support a particular construct of Maya sociopolitical organization and an inherent weakness that would have doomed it to collapse. This thesis explains the premises of this current interpretation and examines the Copan seats from several alternate viewpoints and methodologies. Formulation of a comprehensive dataset of actual Maya seats and representations of seats in sculpture, ceramic, and hieroglyphic contexts demonstrates that the Copan seats fit comfortably within Maya epigraphic, stylistic and iconographic conventions rather than representing a revolutionary challenge to dynastic authority. Through analyses of form and construction, locational context, varieties of decoration, and content of inscriptions, this thesis shows that such hierarchically-privileged seats-of-authority, which are found in residential complexes of very different socio-economic status, not only in Copan but throughout the Maya region in Classic times, better support a model of factional competition than of autocratic dynastic authority. These seats appear to have been designed to construct the social position of their occupants in relation to subordinate members of their own factions, to other faction leaders with whom they were in competition, and to the ruler as both head of the polity and leader of the royal faction. Indeed, discursive notions of the seat and seating were central to ancient Maya concepts of patriarchal authority. Further, since such factional competition may be shown to characterize Maya social organization since Late Pre-Classic times, the inscribed Copan seats provide no insights as to the causes of the so-called "Maya Collapse."

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This thesis explores issues of subjectivity and gender around ritual activity in Xianyou county, Fujian Province, China. It focuses on three groups of women: Buddhist nuns, mediums and village women engaged in the ritual caretaking of their families. It also examines a spirit writing text from the late Qing dynasty (1644-1911). It is suggested that subject positions and kin positions are to a certain extent coextensive and that participation in certain rituals is what constitutes one as a gendered subject (as a "woman") and in certain kin roles (as wife, daughter-in-law, etc.). Other gendered subject positions (such as that of melancholic lover) are explored in an attempt to complicate any simple determinism that might accompany to easy a correspondence of kin position with sex role.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

The purpose of this investigation is to trace the relationship between the atomistic personality and the social structures of the Chippewa-Ojibwa cultural-linguistic groups. The selection of this group was determined after an ethnographic survey of the urban Indians of Chicago at the American Indian Center during the summer of 1973. The basic hypothesis of this research is that the atomistic personality, which is a characteristic feature of the Chippewa-Ojibwa, has hindered native development of extensive social structures known historically beyond that of the individual family and that most of the social structures were results of externally initiated forces or influences.In delineating the types of social structures, I have described five temporal levels. In observing each of these levels, I have included the range of social structures (e.g. Family, tribal, inter-tribal) and the external historic factors.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The elite and the labour migrants live in completely different worlds: the first in middle-class suburbs and the second in shantytowns and council housing projects. Notions of 'race' and 'class', based on differences in complexion, education and wealth, contribute to the existence of these two groups of Cape Verdeans as separate entities. While the elite Portuguese Cape Verdeans are almost invisible within the mainstream society, the Cape Verdean labour migrants are highly visible because of their poor social integration. While the descendants of the elite are diluting within the Portuguese mainstream, the descendants of the labour migrants are occupying the fringes of Portuguese society and developing an oppositional identity in relation to the Portuguese mainstream. The first part of this thesis gives a detailed description of the Cape Verde archipelago and the foundations of its colonial society, and of the important issue of Cape Verdean migration. The second part presents the life of the two groups of Cape Verdeans in postcolonial Portugal and the ways the Portuguese mainstream perceive them.

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of change and retention in Maori material culture during the protohistoric is recommended. The principal disciplines involved are history, ethnology, ethnography and archaeology. Each exploits a different research resource and together in synthesis they can offer a more comprehensive understanding of culture change. This study concentrates on the material culture subsystem of Maori culture; yet it can only be effectively studied if the relationship between this subsystem and others is unravelled. Hence the need for an interdisciplinary methodology. �Classic� Maori material culture is briefly outlined in Chapter One. Historical aspects of the protohistoric period are discussed in Chapter Two. Chapter Three outlines the various potential sources of interdisciplinary input in a study of contact period Maori material culture change and assesses contributions made to this study by other researchers. Chapter Four summarizes the major themes of retention and adaptation in relation to particular aspects of post-contact Maori material culture change in the protohistoric period are outlined in Chapter Five. This study has taken a generalized approach to a problem which has a number of different regional manifestations. A framework is provided within which detailed regional assessments can be made. Such studies will be the most effective way of testing whether the hypotheses derived from this research are adequate to explain the changes, retentions and adaptations in Maori material culture during the protohistoric period.

This thesis is a systematic examination from a historical point of view of the rich diversity of forms and images of the lion motif in Chinese space and social life. Drawing on textual, linguistic and archaeological sources, it addresses the fundamental problem inherent in the study of the lion motif in China, that is, why a foreign import was adopted, transformed and assimilated into an existing culture and how it was then widely rendered in various forms and images as though it had been an indigenous image all along. The examination begins with a search for the origins, names for and appearance of the real lion in China and a comparison of this with the images, roles and powers of the ideological lion in the Chinese mind. It proceeds through an investigation into the liking of the ruling class for lions as tomb guardian beasts in their search for a better afterlife. The thesis then focuses on the adoption of the lion motif by ordinary people as a means of approaching the divine and gaining recognition, in the process of which the image of a ferocious beast was gradually transformed into that of a rotund pet. The pet-like ??look?? of the lion came to be associated with various vernacular cultures of Southern China and assumed a unique style during Ming (1368??1644), when the form and image of the animal became a living concept with little emphasis on its physical appearance. In other words, what perpetuated the significant role of the lion in Chinese space and social life was its conceptual image, not its physical shape. Two case studies, one based in Kinmen and the other in Sydney, further demonstrate that the physical appearance of the lion motif has little effect on the power and mechanism of the mighty animal in the Chinese mind. What matters most, when placing the lion motif in front of an entry way, is the reiteration or reenactment of the conceptual image of the lion through symbols, rituals and ??traditional?? beliefs by which this particular animal motif has become an enduring legacy of Chinese communities around the world. The thesis, then, summarises the changes in the lion motif and its transformation from a physical object to a living concept free from image and form constraints as a gradual process of Chinese perception that integrated the real animal with the imagined animal, strange and unfamiliar phenomena, and the dominant and popular cultures. The context of this integration may have been significantly influenced by the bureaucratic metaphor of the ruling class. The lasting meaning and significance of the lion motif, however, is due to the vision and determination of ordinary people, who are as much prone to seeking a comfortable space and the promise of a better life as have been their rulers.

No description available.