Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig.

Thesis (M.A.)--Denver Seminary, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-93).

Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-132).

No / In contrast with artefactual studies of long-distance trade and exchange in South Asia during the Prehistoric and Early Historic periods (Ardika et al . 1993; Gogte 1997; Krishnan and Coningham 1997; Tomber 2000; Gupta et al . 2001; Ford et al . 2005), few scientifically orientated analyses have focused on artefacts from the region¿s Historic period. During excavations at the ancient city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, a number of buff ware ceramics with a putative organic coating on the interior were recovered (Coningham 2006). Dated stylistically to between the third and ninth centuries AD , analysis of the coatings using gas chromatography¿mass spectrometry (GC¿MS) and stable isotope analysis (carbon and deuterium) confirmed that the coatings are bitumen¿an organic product associated with petroleum deposits. There are no known bitumen sources in Sri Lanka, and biomarker distributions and isotopic signatures suggest that the majority of the samples appear to have come from a single bitumen source near Susa in Iran. The relationship between the bitumen coatings and the vessels is discussed, and it is suggested that the coatings were used to seal permeable ceramic containers to allow them to transport liquid commodities. This study enhances our knowledge of networks of trade and exchange between Sri Lanka and western Asia during Historic times.

The few studies of Mormon home literature that have been published to date dismiss it as inferior artistry, an embarrassing if necessary step in the progression towards true Mormon literature. These studies are inadequate, however, because they divorce the texts from their context, holding them up to standards that did not exist for their original audience. Jane Tompkins' theory of texts as cultural work provides a more satisfactory way of looking at these narratives. Home literature is thoroughly enmeshed in the cultural discourse of its day. Beneath the surface, these didactic stories about young Mormons finding love with their foreordained mates performed important cultural work by helping Mormons to think about their personal and collective identities, by co-opting mainstream fictional forms and giving them safe expression, and by reconceptualizing marriage in the wake of polygamy's demise. The stories of Susa Young Gates illustrate these functions well. Gates was a prominent youth leader and prolific home author during the 1890s. Her stories extend and enact Mormon cultural discourse of the time and point up the connections between Mormon fiction and mainstream models. The last decade of the nineteenth century marked the beginning of Mormonism's transition from an isolated separatist movement to a thoroughly assimilated and modem mainstream religion. As Mormons shifted away from the defining practices of polygamy, communal economics, and ecclesiastical dominance of politics, they sought for new ways to define themselves that would retain their sense of distinctness from a world they still viewed as sinful. The result was new emphasis on formerly dormant or relatively unemphasized practices such as the Word of Wisdom and the law of tithing. This emphasis shows up in the story "Donald's Boy" which repeatedly focuses on the necessity for Mormon youth to shun the corruptions of the world. "Seven Times," which ran in the 1893-94 volume of the Young Woman's Journal, shows Gates's debt to mainstream fiction in its extensive adoption of popular conventions, reworking such devices as the heroine's development, the divine child, the lecherous villain, and the sick bed ordeal into a Mormon conversion narrative. As in popular American fiction, the role of the narrator is central to the didactic intentions of the story. The narrator becomes the dominant personality of the text as she both creates and controls the emotion necessary to the formal and ideological demands of the narrative. Gates claimed to consider popular didactic fiction inconsequential, but her own comments and her wholesale use of its conventions suggests that her relationship with these novels was much more complex than she acknowledged. "John Stevens' Courtship" is Gates's most popular and ambitious work. Its setting in the early years of Mormon settlement in Utah at the time of the first large-scale influx of "outsiders" into Mormon society constructs an idealized view of early Mormon culture that contrasts with the diminished faithfulness Gates perceived in her day. Gates's artistic ambitions show up most clearly in her intense descriptions of her characters. These character descriptions draw on popular conventions to inscribe idealized gender constructs that interacted with Mormon ideology to remain in force in Mormon society long after they had faded elsewhere. Finally, Gates's emphasis on the idea of a foreordained mate replaces polygamy as the essential doctrine of marriage, an important shift in post-Manifesto Mormondom.

MA (Xitsonga) / Ehansi Ka Senthara ya M. E. R. Mathivha ya Tindzimi ta Afrika Vutshila na Mfuwo / Xikongomelonkulu xa ndzavisiso lowu i ku xopaxopa maendli mo susa ma xiendliwa xin’we eka Xitsonga hi ku kongomisa eka tindlela leti ma tirhaka hatona exivulweni. Xikongomelo lexi xi aviwa hi marhavi manharhu. Rhavi ro sungula ri kongomana na ku xopaxopa maendli mo susa lama paluxaka mukhuva na mbuyelo hi xikongomelo xo kumisisa michumu leyi nga tirhaka tanihi tiagumente ta nhlokomhaka na tiagumente ta swiendliwa, xikan’we na ku lavisisa michumu leyi nga tirhaka tanihi switirho swa maendli mo susa. Rhavi ra vumbirhi rona ri langutana na ku lavisisa maendli mo susa ma xiendliwa xin’we lama paluxaka mukhuva na mbuyelo lama tirheke eswivulweni ma ri na swivulwana swa mahlanganisi swa xivangelo, xikongomelo na xipimelo. Kasi rhavi ra vunharhu ri tirhana no kambisisa tinhlamuselo/mitirho ya xisemantiki leyi nyikiwaka tiagumemnte hi maendli mo susa ma xiendliwa xin’we lama paluxaka mukhuva na mbuyelo. Eka ndzavisiso lowu ku tirhisiwa thiyori ya vunongoti, ku nga thiyori leyi kongomanaka na ndlela leyi vanhu va twisisaka xiswona marito. Mhaka leyi endlekaka eka thiyori leyi, hi leswi vanhu va twisisaka xiswona marito emiehleketweni ya vona eka leswi ma vulaka swona hi ku angarhela. Swiphemu swa nkoka leswi thiyori leyi yi jikajikaka eka swona i nhlokomhaka leyi nga xiendli xa leswi susiwaka, riendli leri hlamuselaka leswi susiwaka na hilaha swi susiwaka hakona, xiendliwa lexi khumbekaka hileswi vuriwaka hi riendli, na xilandzelandzhaku lexi nga vaka ndhawu, xitirho na swin’wana ni swin’wana. Ndzavisiso lowu wu endliwa hi ku landzelela maendlelo ma nkoka, laha ku nga na maendlelo mambirhi mo kongoma ehansi ka wona; ku nga mo tirhisa ntlawa wo karhi wa vavulavuri va Xitsonga lava nga xiyayiya swivulwa leswi mulavisisi a swi vumbeke leswi vaka swi tirhisile maendli mo susa. Mulavisisi u lulamisile papila ra swivutiso leri longoloxeke swivulwa leswi a lavaka leswaku vavulavuri lava va swi xiyayiya ku xiya loko swi twala kumbe swi nga twali na maendlelo ma nxopaxopo wa vundzeni bya tsalwa lama tirhisiwaka ku xopaxopa swivulwa leswi nga tirhisiwa tanihi mahungu ya ndzavisiso lowu. / NRF