En se fondant sur un corpus de cérémonies rituelles d’ombwiri collecté dans deux provinces du Gabon, cette thèse discute la pertinence des concepts anthropologiques couramment appliqués aux religions africaines dans leur évolution contemporaine, en particulier ceux dérivant de théories «syncrétistes». Partant d’une méthodologie confrontant les données de terrain aux interprétations qui en ont été tirées par les chercheurs qui ont étudié les rituels religieux du Gabon, l’auteur en arrive à contester la qualité des productions scientifiques consacrées au sujet, considérant que les perspectives développées jusque-là privilégient la seule dimension diachronique des emprunts culturels, font la part belle aux intégrations minoritaires d’éléments occidentaux dans l’invention rituelle traditionnelle, et escamotent finalement le ressort créatif permanent qui rend la production des rituels possible, y compris dans leur intégration d’éléments nouveaux, dussent-ils provenir de l’étranger. Pour cela, il propose le concept alternatif de «correspondances interreligieuses» pour rendre compte de la libre possibilité d’intégrer, à tout moment, et dans des proportions cognitivement encadrées, des éléments de tradition exogène. Il évite ainsi de retomber dans les pièges du colonialisme scientifique qui ne peut s’empêcher d’aliéner la culture colonisée en lui imposant le carcan théorique d’une culture colonisatrice. / Based on an intensive field work related to ombwiri rituals performed in two provinces of Gabon, this dissertation discusses the relevance of common theorisation of African contemporary religions as expressions of syncretism. The author considers that syncretism cannot be applied unilaterally to African rituals, as it might only emphasize the diachronic level in cultural and linguistic borrowing, without outlying the synchronic one which makes the borrowing even possible. More consequently, syncretist theorisation neglects fundamental aspects of ritual creativity and specific empowerment to integrate what it likes or not, including outdoor elements resulting from historical and particularly cross-cultural conjunctions. Therefore, the author suggests to start up with a new conceptual framework of “interreligious correspondences”, so as to prevent scientific productions from colonial recurrent ideologies, and give evidence of cognitive mechanisms which habilitate African minds as others, to go on integrating new with old, extraordinary with ordinary, and all kinds of resources, in a permanent creative dynamism including the indefinite limit that one likes to give to oneself.

This thesis aims to present society of Universalia which first appears in era of the First republic and uses it's journal Logos in attempt to prove whether Universalia is society of alternative spirituality. Thesis is also interested in some authors of spiritual articles in this periodical and tries to describe impact of these authors on the community of Universalia. The introduction of this thesis describes society of Universalia and its purpose. Another chapter mentions many traditions which Universalia follows-up. Ensuing is the presentation of Logos journal, which serves as communication stream for its members and other societies. Focus point of the thesis lies in analysis of spiritual articles in Logos journal. Forty-two specific articles have been chosen to introduce its authors and try to derive from their contents, whether they aim to create comprehensive picture of spiritual live. The attachments bring some of to this day unpublished research instruments, such as complete bibliography of Logos journal or list of texts published by Universalia.

Abstract. The overall aim of this study is to examine the Neo-Gnostic teachings of Samael Aun Weor (1917-1977). The research question will inquire his main ideas in relation to syncretism, cosmology, and sexology. Accordingly, based on the theoretical perspectives of Antoine Faivre, the gnostic doctrine of Samael Aun Weor is summarized, compared and examined in the light of the definitions of western esotericism. The purpose is on one hand to make an exploration of a relatively unknown esoteric author and on the other hand to place his vast teachings and interpretations within the esoteric context and in relation to the new era discourse. Methodically, a qualitative text analysis will be used to explore several books written by Samael Aun Weor which are further analysed with the help of secondary sources. The study concludes that the Neo-Gnostic ideology of Samael Aun Weor, despite being placed by scholars within the new era discourse, additionally matches within the framework of classical esotericism and that furthermore reveals revived and combined perspectives with interpretations that have seldom been transmitted before.

Aujourd’hui, le corpus des textes magiques coptes compte 314 manuscrits publiés et plusieurs dizaines de textes toujours inédits, datés pour la plupart entre le 5e et le 12e siècle de notre ère. Parmi ceux-ci, un petit groupe composé de vingt-trois manuscrits magiques comprend des charmes qui présentent des invocations à des divinités grecques ou égyptiennes (p. ex. Artémis, Isis, Horus, Seth, Petbe) ou de courts récits mythologiques (historiolae) les mettant en scène. L’existence même de ces charmes soulève plusieurs questions :comment des références à des divinités traditionnelles se sont-elles retrouvées dans des textes « chrétiens » datés des 5e–12e siècles, et surtout, quels mécanismes ont été utilisés par les experts en rituels de l’Égypte tardo-antique et médiévale pour intégrer ces références dans leurs charmes ?Afin de répondre à ces questions, cette étude propose le premier examen exhaustif de l’ensemble de ces vingt-trois textes magiques coptes. Dans les trois premiers chapitres, nous étudions chacun des vingt-trois textes coptes en détail—les types de textes, les objectifs des charmes, les éléments traditionnels et chrétiens utilisés, les différentes façons dont ceux-ci ont été combinés—en plus de les comparer avec des textes magiques datés des périodes pharaonique (en moyen égyptien) et gréco-romaine (en démotique et en grec). Dans le dernier chapitre, nous offrons un examen plus général du groupe de vingt-trois textes en discutant entre autres de la datation et de la provenance des manuscrits, ainsi que des expressions récurrentes utilisées, ce qui nous permet également de les replacer dans le contexte plus large de l’ensemble du corpus des textes magiques coptes. Cette étude montre, d’une part, que nos vingt-trois textes magiques coptes témoignent d’une grande continuité dans les pratiques magiques en Égypte, puisque les éléments traditionnels utilisés (références aux divinités grecques et égyptiennes, historiolae, formules et expressions) ont été transmis, par l’intermédiaire de manuscrits magiques, depuis l’époque pharaonique jusqu’à l’époque médiévale. D’autre part, ces textes témoignent également de changements, et plus particulièrement, de nombreux processus syncrétiques, puisque les éléments traditionnels ont été réinterprétés, puis juxtaposés ou fusionnés à des éléments chrétiens. Ainsi, notre examen révèle comment les experts en rituels de l’Égypte tardo-antique et médiévale, en s’inspirant de manuscrits magiques plus anciens et en combinant des éléments de différentes traditions religieuses dans leurs charmes, sont devenus des agents du syncrétisme religieux et, de façon plus générale, de la transformation religieuse. / Doctorat en Langues, lettres et traductologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Thèse préparée en cotutelle en anthropologie (Université de Montréal) et en ethnomusicologie (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales). / Cette recherche propose une recension socio-historique des contacts interculturels et du processus d’évangélisation chez les Noons de Thiès (Sénégal) afin d’y retracer la transmutation de symboliques culturelles depuis l’animisme au catholicisme, jusqu’à un état de vicariance entre les cultures en présence. Des travaux ont été effectués dans les archives des Spiritains, au Sénégal et à Paris; au Service historique de la Défense, à Vincennes; dans les Archives du Sénégal, à Dakar; et dans les archives de l’Abbaye de Keur Moussa. Des entrevues ont aussi été menées sur le terrain entre mars 2019 et mars 2020, enrichies d’une démarche renouvelée de bimusicalité selon Mantle Hood (1960), afin de mettre en lumière la perpétuation de symboles identitaires pendant la période coloniale jusqu’à aujourd’hui dans le mbilim, pratique musicale noon au coeur de la recherche. Cette recherche s’inscrit dans un contexte d’acculturation et de syncrétisme au sein d’une population faisant l’objet d’une exclusion systématique de la littérature historique écrite et s’inscrit dans la foulée d’une ethnomusicologie appliquée abordant le musical comme sujet holistique, observable et explicable selon diverses représentations de la communauté, une construction dynamique relevant de la rencontre entre plusieurs cultures dans le temps et se modulant selon l’utilisateur et le contexte d’utilisation (Berlioz et al., 1989). Je propose ainsi de reconsidérer le travail d’archives sur l’histoire et l’expérience coloniale et missionnaire afin de repenser les modèles classiques de syncrétisme et d’acculturation pour comprendre la construction d’une identité culturelle et musicale (ré)actualisée qui puisse permettre à la communauté visée de se projeter dans l’espace politique et socioculturel du Sénégal. / This research proposes a socio-historical review of cross-cultural contacts and of the evangelisation process among the Noons of Thiès (Senegal) in order to trace the transmutation of cultural symbolics from animism to Catholicism up to a state of vicariousness between the cultures in encounter. Work has been carried out in the archives of the Spiritans, in Senegal and Paris; at the Defense Historical Service, in Vincennes; in the National Archives of Senegal, in Dakar; and in the archives of Keur Moussa Abbey. Interviews were also conducted on the field between March 2019 and March 2020, enriched with a renewed approach of bi-musicality according to Mantle Hood (1960), in order to highlight the perpetuation of identity symbols during the colonial period until today in the mbilim, a musical practice of the Noons at the core of this research which is part of a context of acculturation and syncretism within a population subject to systematic exclusion from written historical literature. This research takes also part of an applied ethnomusicology approaching the musical as holistic subject, observable and explicable according to various representations of the community, a dynamic construction arising from the encounter between several cultures over time and modulating according to the user and the context of use (Berlioz et al., 1989). I thus propose to reconsider the work on the history and the colonial and missionary experience in the archives in order to rethink the classical models of syncretism and acculturation to understand the construction of a (re)actualised cultural and musical identity which can allow the community in question to project itself into the political and socio-cultural space of Senegal.

Ce mémoire explore les territoires esthétiques de la culture populaire dans l’imaginaire carnavalisé du compositeur d’avant-garde Erik Satie (1866-1925). L’interprétation de l’arrière-texte de la poétique compositionnelle de Satie proposée par cette étude interroge le caractère iconoclaste des symboles associés à la scène des divertissements « légers ». Par les thèmes, genres, tropes et topoï qu’elle privilégie, l’œuvre musicale de Satie se situe au confluent du « savant » et du « vulgaire ». En portant un regard attentif aux créations « mineures » de Satie pour la scène populaire à Montmartre, ce travail cherche à définir les rapports antinomiques opposant les représentations, attitudes et valeurs promues par la culture « officielle » à l’attachement iconoclaste de Satie aux univers du « bas-social », du grotesque et de l’obscène. Les chahuts intempérants de Satie au cabaret artistique, au music-hall et au café-concert, au même titre que la revendication subversive par le compositeur des potentialités esthétiques offertes par le jeu et l’humour vernaculaires, prolongent le geste de résistance littéraire et artistique contre-culturel de la bohème fin-de-siècle. En visant une compréhension sémantique des enjeux discursifs qui accompagnent historiquement la représentation du populaire – cet « Autre » profanant, repoussoir de l’élite bourgeoise –, ce mémoire appréhende la portée démocratique du rire matérialiste populaire de Satie, principale figure tutélaire des premières avant-gardes modernistes parisiennes au tournant du XXe siècle. / This thesis aims to explore the aesthetic territories of popular culture within the avant-garde composer Erik Satie’s (1866-1925) carnavalized imagination. This study provides an interpretation of the subtext of Satie’s poetics of composition that questions the use of symbols associated with ‘light’ entertainment as means of protest. The themes, genres, tropes and topoï that Satie’s works invoke place them at the intersection of ‘learned’ and ‘vulgar’ culture. By paying close attention to Satie’s ‘minor’ works created for Montmartre’s popular establishments, this thesis seeks to define the antinomic relationship that opposes ‘official’ culture’s promoted representations, attitudes and values to Satie’s iconoclastic penchant for the imaginary spaces of the ‘low-class’, the grotesque and the obscene. Satie’s uproarious contributions to cabaret artistique, music-hall and café-concert, as well as the composer’s subversive exploration of the aesthetic potential of playfulness and vernacular humor, find echoes in the literary and artistic counter-cultural acts of resistance in Bohemian fin-de-siècle circles. Based on a semantic understanding of the discursive issues historically surrounding the representation of the popular as a degrading ‘Other’ by the wealthy bourgeois elite, this thesis appraises the democratic scope of Satie’s materialistic popular laughter, which serves as one of the main influences for the first Parisian modernist avant-garde movement at the turn of the twentieth century.

This thesis finds out how the concepts of the divine in African Traditional Religions are similar or different, particularly in Ghana and Lesotho and in other parts of Africa in general. In doing so, the researcher combines literature review of eminent scholars who have studied the religious and socio-cultural life of the people of Ghana and Lesotho in particular and Africa in general, with personal field study through dissemination of questionnaires, interviews and personal observations. Through this approach he finds out the various religious phenomena that reveal the concept of the divine in the two countries concerned and in other African countries through comparison of their worships and socio-cultural activities in order to come out with the differences and the similarities that may call for synthesis of the concept in Africa. He also finds out how the concept of the divine in Africa has been influenced by foreign religions and culture particularly Christianity, Islam, Western culture and Education. And how their services and disservices have affected the concept of the divine in Africa. The researcher also looks at the issue of monotheism as against polytheism in African religious perspective to find out whether the African Traditional Religions are polytheistic, monotheistic or monolatry. The study reveals that the concept of the divine, in the two countries under study, ends up in one Supreme deity-God- .but that the approach to the concept is not always the same. There are some differences and similarities, which also prevail in other African Traditional Religions and in Christianity. There is also a look into whether the term "African Traditional Religions" is appropriate for the religious belief and practices found in Africa, and whether a synthesis of religious practices in Africa would be possible in future. In the final analysis the study reveals that the African concept of the divine as pertains in the two countries is not different from that of Christianity and Islam but that the approach to the concept differs due to differences in the perception of the divine through sociocultural and religious milieus. / Religious Studies & Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

The purpose of this study was to present an analysis of the belief systems of the worldviews behind the religions of Christianity and African Traditional Religion with a view toward aiding the Christian church in African help its converts from African Traditional Religion to hold a biblical worldview in the areas where the biblical and traditional African worldviews conflict. The two worldviews were analyzed, and compared using the philosophical elements of a worldview and the religious dimensions of how a worldview is lived out in culture. Genesis 1-11 of the Christian Bible was used as the basis for the biblical or Christian worldview. The Christian believes that the Bible is God's inspired word to mankind and that what is recorded in Genesis 1-11 gives God's answers to the basic philosophical questions that make up a worldview. Therefore, Christian philosophy and the Christian worldview are postulated on God's special revelation as recorded in the Bible. The African worldview is based upon the sayings and traditions of the elders as received from the ancestors. The traditional African believes in the trustworthiness of the ancestors as strongly as the Christian believes in the trustworthiness of the Bible. When an African converts from African Traditional Religion to Christianity he encounters a conflict of beliefs in certain philosophical elements of his worldview. Upon the conviction that beliefs determine practice, unless the African convert to Christianity changes his beliefs he will not change his practice, and syncretism will be the result. After analyzing the two worldviews, the areas of conflict in beliefs were presented with recommendations for bringing the African Christian's worldview beliefs into conformity with the Christian worldview. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D.Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

The search for a ‘historical Moses’ is one which has been debated for several centuries. In spite of copious archaeological finds in Egypt and other parts of the ancient Near East, no material remains have been found to substantiate the Exodus story. Mythological stories from the ancient Near East bear striking similarities to the Moses narrative found in the Hebrew Bible. The inconsistencies found in the Hebrew Bible further hamper the attempt to find a historical Moses, instead Moses is found only in tradition. Taking these issues into consideration, other possibilities need to be investigated. This dissertation places Moses growing up in the court of Akhenaten an 18th Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh in the middle of the 14th century BCE. The study investigates the possibility of Moses as a son of Akhenaten with Nefertiti as a stepmother, his own biological mother, a Mitannian princess, having died giving birth to Moses. Several similarities between Akhenaten and Moses are discussed throughout the study. The study moves into the 21st century with the groundbreaking discovery of DNA, which provides new conclusions which before were only debated. / Biblical & Ancient Studies / M.A. (Biblical Archaeology)

A la charnière du XIXe et du XXe siècle, l’Espagne vit une révolution cultuelle et culturelle sans précédent. La question du sacré permet de cristalliser les enjeux de cette crise. Une approche résolument transversale révèle en effet le sacré comme clef de voûte des troubles qui agitent les Espagnols. La remise en cause continue de la place de l’Église dans la société, alimentée par l’affrontement sous-jacent entre cléricaux et anticléricaux, est fondamentale dans la douloureuse quête idiosyncratique qui ébranle la nation. Les artistes, témoins et acteurs de leur époque, se font l’écho de cette tension politique et sociale. Dans un premier temps, l’analyse du motif du sacré, livré par des romans et des tableaux, met en évidence non seulement la manifestation d’une sécularisation en marche, mais également la prégnance d’une culture religieuse durablement fixée. Dans un second temps, la polymorphie intrinsèque de ce sacré pré-moderne est abordée par une typologie qui en précise l’expression, de la plus manifeste à la moins tangible, cette dilution du sacré étant caractéristique de la Modernité. Enfin, au-delà de l’étude du motif iconographique et romanesque, une analyse du processus du sacré met en lumière combien les artistes de cette période sondent et interrogent la sacralité présente dans leurs œuvres, et combien celle-ci, ondoyante et industrieuse, échappe à leur contrôle, creusant les prémices d’une religion de l’art. / During the transitional period between the 19th and the 20th century, Spain experienced an unprecedented revolution, both religious and cultural. The issue of the sacred enabled to crystallize what is at stake during this crisis. A thoroughly cross-conceptual approach shows the sacred as a keystone for the mayhem that Spanish people underwent. The role of the church in Spanish society kept being questioned, due to the underlying conflict between those who supported the church and the others who were opposed to it. This questioning was fundamental in the difficult idiosyncratic quest which shook the nation. Artists, who were both witnesses and actors of their time, unveiled and showed this political and social tension. Firstly, the analysis of the pattern of the sacred through novels and paintings underlines the evidence of the secularization that took place. Likewise, it discloses the pregnancy of a religious culture established on a permanent basis in Spanish society. Secondly, the intrinsic polymorphous aspect of this pre-modern sacred is revealed by a typology which develops the representation of the sacred, from the most obvious to the least tangible one. This dilution of the sacred is characteristic of Modernity. Finally, beyond the study of the iconographic and novelistic pattern, an analysis of the process of the sacred enhances how the artists of this era took soundings and questioned sacrality in their works of art. It also shows how sacrality, constantly changing, could not be mastered by the artists, digging the roots of a cult for art.