The study examines the socio-religious role of women in traditional African societies using the Hlubi of Qumbu, Transkei as a case study. Qualitative methodology was used to look at Hlubi women holistically in their past and the situations in which they find themselves today. Primary sources of African traditional religion such as myths, proverbs and taboos were also used in assessing the socio-religious role of Hlubi women. The following observations were made about Hlubi women: 1. They do not constitute an homogenous group. 2. Sexual division of labour allocates to women the responsibility of sustaining the household. 3. They have multiple workloads: namely, survival, household and income generating tasks. 4. They experience ambivalence regarding their roles - responsibility without proper authority. 5. Hlubi women share with their male counterparts the role of traditional healers. 6. In spite of increased involvement of women in church activities they are still denied leadership positions. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Religious Studies)

The purpose of the thesis is to examine the relationship between social structure and ritual. It is based on data collected in a peasant village in Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh, South India, over a period of twenty-three months 1970-1972). In this village, in which Gavara farmers are the dominant caste, the formal organizing principles of the society are hierarchy and interdependence. A detailed statistical survey of the realities of the society reveals that these principles, while on the whole upheld, are constantly under challenge. Women constantly challenge male dominance in domestic economic affairs and disputes and also play a major role in the high degree of marital instability and divorce. Brothers pursue their own households' interests to the detriment of their interdependent co-operation with each other. Between castes, economic relations do not always conform to a strictly hierarchical pattern. The caste hierarchy itself is a mass of discrepant unreciprocated claims. In the face of these violations and contradictory pressures it is ritual activity and its symbolism which define and uphold the formal conventions of social hierarchy and interdependence. This is achieved through the constant repetition of symbols of respect and in the principal ritual act, puja. This symbolic acting out of hierarchy is thus presented through rituals as the epitome of morality itself. The subordinate role of women is similarly defined by ritual concepts. The woman who is subordinated to her husband is virtuous and auspicious. A woman who becomes a widow is no longer subordinate to an elder male and is inauspicious. Performances of rituals of the major agricultural festivals foster ideal models of inter-caste cooperation by activating responsibilities for castes to participate interdependently. They are, however, also occasions through which numerous political and economic rivalries find expression.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis came into being as the result of a question innocently posed to me three years ago: Why do some towns in the Eastern Cape have German names? This thesis is not so much an answer to that question (which is answered in the following paragraphs) as an attempt to answer the questions that followed: Were the Germans really as benevolent and hard-working as much of the most readily available literature implies? Why did the military settlers leave and the peasant farmer settlers remain? What was the nature of relationships between the German settlers and other groups in the area? How did the German settlers see themselves? The existing literature provides the historic details, more or less, but not the context and explanations I sought. As such, I set out to find them and document them myself, addressing three main questions: 1. What was the (changing) nature of the German settlers' day-to-day lives between 1857 and 1919? 2. How was a German identity maintained/constructed within the German communities of the Eastern Cape between 1857 and 1919? 3. How did the Germans interact with other groups in the area? In answering these questions, I have also provided the necessary background as to why these settlers chose to come to South Africa, and why some of them left. I have limited this study to the period between 1857 and 1919 so as to include the First World War and its immediate aftermath, a time when enmity between Great Britain and Germany would have made life difficult for German descendants in the Union of South Africa. Introduction, p. 7.

Orientador: Carlos Eduardo Albuquerque de Miranda / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T08:40:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Coppola_GabrielaDomingues_M.pdf: 900605 bytes, checksum: 82590e06c5fe9a43ae3fd7012e90e887 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Através do olhar da câmera cinematográfica, este estudo busca refletir sobre as formas, cortes, tecidos, ambientes e cores que revelam as imagens do vestir como memória e a roupa como narradora efetiva das emoções de quem as veste. A partir do filme ¿Amor à flor da pele" (Wong Kar-Way, 2000), observamos aspectos que revelam os significados do vestir como escolhas visuais, estéticas e políticas. Assim se resume esta pesquisa / Abstract: Through the glance of the cinematographic camera, this study search to contemplate on the forms, cuts, woven, atmospheres and colors that disclose the images of dressing as memory and the clothes as narrator executes of the emotions of who dresses them. Starting from the film "In the mood for love" (Wong Kar-Way, 2000), we observed aspects that reveal the meanings of dressing as visual choices, aesthetics and politics. That¿s the way this research consists / Mestrado / Educação, Conhecimento, Linguagem e Arte / Mestre em Educação

Spousal abuse is a global phenomenon that occurs in many cultures and affects most of the world’s population of women. Over the past 30 years, spousal abuse has become increasingly recognized as a problem, and women in many countries have organized to advocate for change. The issue of wife abuse has been taken up by the public as an issue of general concern more than once since the latter part of the nineteenth century. It came into the limelight again in the early 1970’s in the United States, its progress towards public awareness corresponding with the growth of the women’s movement. In broad terms, the women’s movement may be divided into two major feminist perspectives. First wave feminism is principally concerned with equalities between the genders whereas second wave feminism uses women’s differences to oppose the ‘legalities’ of a patriarchal world. The phenomenon of women being abused in intimate relationships has been referred to as “the problem that had no name.” Indeed, one of the most important contributions of second wave feminism was the labels it provided to previously unnamed, largely unspoken, taboo problems that women confronted. Without a label to refer to a phenomenon, that phenomenon is extremely difficult to describe, to discuss, to count, and analyse. In South Africa concern about wife abuse, started in the early 1980’s. Inspired by the action of overseas movements, South African feminists began to mobilize around violence against women. In the South African context, violence against women must be viewed against the socio-political background of apartheid, race, class, and gender relations. In an historic context of overwhelming oppression and state-sanctioned violence, a culture of violence developed. Over time this situation is accepted as a norm and becomes a primary means of conflict resolution- including between domestic partners. Accurate statistics on the problem of spousal abuse in South Africa are unavailable since national prevalence studies have not been conducted. Difficulties in obtaining prevalence to date have been exacerbated by fragmentation created by the former apartheid bureaucracy; the lack of resources to confront the problem of spousal abuse; and the fact that the problem is often unrecognized and under reported. However, preliminary findings from available research indicate that spousal abuse in South Africa is a serious and extensive problem. The abuse reported in these studies ranged from verbal insults, threats, physical injury and even death. Numerous studies found that spousal abuse is seen as a private matter, so that the abused woman does not have the support of friends, family or the authority to help her stop the abuse or to leave the relationship. Spousal abuse is sequential, developmental and dynamic. The situation of the abused woman is unlike many other crisis in that it is transcrisis; that is, it is cyclical, reaching many peak levels over extended periods of time. For a variety of reasons it is rare for women to leave an abusive spousal relationship for good after the first abusive incident. Continued and increased abuse over a period of years is the typical pattern of abusive spousal relationships. Research has indicated that abusive spousal relationships typically include a life-threatening history of injuries and psychosocial problems that entrap the women in the relationships. Limited research has been undertaken on the experience of women who do manage to leave abusive spousal relationships despite the debilitating physical and emotional sequelae of the abuse and a lack of family and societal support. This investigation aims to address and explore the experience “Coloured” women who managed to leave abusive spousal relationships. As the literature review will indicate, the social-cultural context of “Coloured” is one that not only makes them susceptible to experiencing spousal abuse but it also predisposes them to remain in these relationships. The investigation seeks those themes, emotions and thoughts which are central and significant in the women’s experience. It explores the manner in which leaving comes about and is incorporated into the women’s sense of self and understanding of the world. Essentially, the research aims to provide some understanding of what the experience of leaving an abusive relationship entails and the personal meaning it holds for the women. In order to ensure that the women's own subjective experiences, and their own interpretations and understanding of those experiences will be the focal point, as opposed to that of the researcher, the existential-phenomenological system of inquiry is employed. The existential-phenomenological approach is not only utilized as a specific research methodology but is also adopted as an overall attitude towards doing research. The participants in the study are viewed as beings-in-the-world, thereby acknowledging that the experience of leaving occurs in a context in which the participants act on and are simultaneously acted upon by their lived-worlds. Qualitative access to the subjective realm of the women is attempted through a qualitative design through which rich data is collected through in-depth, open-ended interviews which facilitates unique and personal descriptions. A pilot interview with a woman who left an abusive spousal relationship indicated that the research question (How did you experience leaving the abusive relationship?) together with broad open-ended questions, facilitated the attainment of rich, vital, substantive descriptions of the experience of leaving. Three “Coloured” women, who left their abusive spousal relationships at least two years ago, were then sourced from previously “Coloured” designated communities and interviewed for the purpose of this study. The qualification in terms of time is important since this study is interested in the experience of women who left their abusive relationships permanently and research has shown that many women leave abusive spousal relationships only to return after some time. / Dr. I. Van der Merwe Prof. W. Schoeman

The study investigates the human rights violations that underlie widowhood practices in Cape Coast and Komenda in the Central Region of Ghana. Review of the relevant literature on widowhood practices suggests that widowhood practices are a global cultural phenomenon, which is not confined to Sub-Sahara Africa. A survey of relevant studies on the phenomenon suggests that there are two competing perceptions on African widowhood practices: (1) a dominant negative perspective and (2) a minor positive perspective. The dominant negative perspective, which receives overwhelming research attention, focuses only on the negative characteristics of widowhood while the minor positive perspective which receives scanty research attention, rejects the criticisms levelled against widowhood practices as being externally influenced by Christianity and Western Feminism. Various stakeholders within the Akan community were given an opportunity to retell their own versions of widowhood practices. In order to achieve this purpose, the research extracted competing narratives from all the multiple sample subgroups of the proposed study: widows; widow family heads; chiefs; widowhood ritual practitioners; elderly female supervisors of widowhood practices; an official from the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ); an official from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC); and an official from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of Ghana. The study found out that despite legislative intervention and policy frameworks, the practice still persist among the Akan communities in Ghana. The reasons for the continued existence of such rituals are explained followed by recommendations for possible solutions.

The central argument of this thesis is that, for the Gaels of Lismore, their boundaries are not just the physical ones (important though they may be) of living on an island bounded by the sea, but that the boundaries are also symbolic and relate to the recreation and reinforcement of a cultural identity. These can be denoted by a variety of things but, in this thesis, I explore boundaries of History, Oral Tradition, Music, Language, Life-cycle rituals and the ritual boundaries of 'celebrations', both at home and when the Gael moves away from the Highlands. Where possible, several specific historical incidents have been used which have direct relevance and significance for the mental construction of these boundaries for the Gaels in general, and the Gaels of Lismore in particular. One of the aims has been to understand the present, by looking at the past, since the culture of the Gaels has important historical referents for them. Both emic and etic perspectives are considered as far as possible, using two types of perspectives on history, outsider viewpoints and those of the Gaels themselves. The identity of a community is a reality: a community consciousness is reinforced and encompassed by boundaries which can be symbolic. The symbols of community can incorporate many differences successfully, specifically because symbols can be so general. In this way, it is possible for a community to come under one banner despite intense variations in belief and ideals. When community parameters are under threat, perhaps by historical factors which necessitate social cliange as in the case of Lismore, people reinforce these boundaries by turning to symbolic behaviour. Ethnographic examples are used throughout to illustrate these points. An audio tape is supplied to use with the Gaelic extracts. This is to allow the reader to hear the sound of the language and music extracts used in the thesis.

The continent of Africa shows the fastest growth of Christianity worldwide. Today more than half of the people of Africa consider themselves to be Christians. Nonetheless not much have changed for the African in terms of day-to-day circumstances. Poverty, famine, various diseases as well as civil wars plague the continent. The gospel of Jesus Christ surely does not only save a soul, but also brings the blessing of God. The people of Africa desperately needs the full impact and blessing of the gospel, that will inevitably also improve their quality of life. Evangelism models that are currently working in Africa fails at a holistic approach. In the execution of the great commandment, the teaching and discipleship aspects still need a lot of attention in Africa. Preachers and members need to work together on all levels to transform our communities with the gospel. The passion for lost people needs restoration, and a holistic evangelism strategy must be developed. In this regard the evangelism stragegy of Silvoso can make some contribution in the African context as the importance of prayer in evangelism should not be neglected. The church in Africa is also experiencing a crisis. How is Christianity really doing in Africa? Considering the culture and traditions of the African people, it is obvious that Christianity will function differently than in the Western context. The African people need a church that is culturally relevant, to be effectively reached for Christ. Co-operation between leaders from all backgrounds in South-Africa is vital to achieve this goal. South-Africa presents a wonderful opportunity for the church to bless and uplift our people. The gospel of Jesus Christ in all its dimensions and with all its blessings has the power to transform our nation. / Dr. G.J. Basson