Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-251). / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / xviii, 251 leaves, bound 29 cm

Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of St Andrews, May 2007.

This dissertation builds and theorizes a corpus of the many feitiços, fetissos, fetiches, and fetishes that, with the advent of Iberian traders along the Atlantic coastlines, materialized and circulated in early modern West Africa before the institution of what we now refer to, in the singular, as “the fetish.” It contends that the techniques and forms that elicited the accusation of fetishes were devised in response to new and varied pressures of the highly dynamic trading contexts of early modern coastal Guinea: to make meaning out of confusion, to anchor unstable notions of value and truth, to shape outcomes by bending fortune to human will, and to assert control and possession in the face of disorder and dispossession. These forms and techniques are the subject of this dissertation, which departs from the thesis that, coded into each use of the term “fetish,” there is an interpretation of the shifting social circumstances that precipitated its fabrication and use. Part I, In the Marketplace, draws on Iberian and Caboverdean merchant treatises and descriptions to map the circulation, and creolization of the Iberian discourse of feitiçaria along the trading routes of West Africa, while collecting and interpreting the feitiços, fetiches, and fetishes that multiplied in its wake. Part II, Before the Holy Office, reverses course and tracks the Africanization of the problem of the feitiço (exemplified in the idiom of mandinga) in the trials of Cacheu-native Crispina Peres (in 1665–1669) and Cabo Verdean Patrício de Andrade (in 1690) for feitiçaria at the Lisbon Tribunal of the Inquisition. Each chapter is articulated around a different technique of feitiçaria—writing, metallurgy, ligature, and gleaning—its social importance, and its perceived effects. Ultimately, this study is built on the conviction that “the problem of the fetish” is best approached as a historical accumulation of problem objects, troubling forms that elicited accusations of fetish and that were thus subject to discursive attempts, both systematic and ad-hoc, to classify and serialize them into a corpus and a theory.

This dissertation presents a new perspective on the function of objects in late-medieval devotional practice through a study of the so-called Soissons group of thirteenth-century French Gothic ivories. These ivory diptychs were sophisticated tools constructed to guide the user through various spiritual exercises that led to prayer. The hitherto unexplained increase in the availability of ivory in mid-thirteenth-century France is accounted for by an alteration in the trade routes that brought elephant tusks from the Swahili coast of Africa to northern Europe: a newly-opened passage through the Straits of Gibraltar allowed a small amount of luxury goods to be shipped together with bulk materials necessary to the northern textile industries. The increasing supply required a revision of the structure of the thirteenth-century craft of ivory. The Soissons group, the first ivory diptychs fashioned during this time of growth in ivory markets, is subdivided into two sections. An itinerant master who traveled throughout the Picard region between 1235 and 1270 crafted the first group. Concurrently, three separate Parisian artists produced the second group based on a Picard model. This dissertation redates all the ivories substantially earlier than previously thought, conclusions which were attained through stylistic analysis. The dense Passion iconography shaped the diptychs’ function in private devotion. The narrative encouraged the viewer to practice a number of spiritual exercises—reading, memorization and compunction—analogous to the three reasons for allowing images in the Christian Church, the triplex ratio. The Passion diptych format introduced with these objects was immensely popular throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and its conservation over time underscored its effectiveness. The small differences in iconography and composition among the seven Soissons diptychs, however, were subtle modifications to adjust to different audiences and to hone the objects’ efficacy as tools for prayer.

This dissertation presents a new perspective on the function of objects in late-medieval devotional practice through a study of the so-called Soissons group of thirteenth-century French Gothic ivories. These ivory diptychs were sophisticated tools constructed to guide the user through various spiritual exercises that led to prayer. The hitherto unexplained increase in the availability of ivory in mid-thirteenth-century France is accounted for by an alteration in the trade routes that brought elephant tusks from the Swahili coast of Africa to northern Europe: a newly-opened passage through the Straits of Gibraltar allowed a small amount of luxury goods to be shipped together with bulk materials necessary to the northern textile industries. The increasing supply required a revision of the structure of the thirteenth-century craft of ivory. The Soissons group, the first ivory diptychs fashioned during this time of growth in ivory markets, is subdivided into two sections. An itinerant master who traveled throughout the Picard region between 1235 and 1270 crafted the first group. Concurrently, three separate Parisian artists produced the second group based on a Picard model. This dissertation redates all the ivories substantially earlier than previously thought, conclusions which were attained through stylistic analysis. The dense Passion iconography shaped the diptychs’ function in private devotion. The narrative encouraged the viewer to practice a number of spiritual exercises—reading, memorization and compunction—analogous to the three reasons for allowing images in the Christian Church, the triplex ratio. The Passion diptych format introduced with these objects was immensely popular throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and its conservation over time underscored its effectiveness. The small differences in iconography and composition among the seven Soissons diptychs, however, were subtle modifications to adjust to different audiences and to hone the objects’ efficacy as tools for prayer.

Thesis--Universität Bielefeld, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-237).

Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att analysera utformningen och geografiska placering av hällbildsvoltigörer inom Västra Götaland för att förstå den eventuella relation hällvoltigörerna kan ha haft till bronsålderns metallhandelsnätverk. Det primära källmaterialet består av uppgifter om dels bronsvoltigören från Grevensvænge, Själland dels hällbildsvoltigörer i Fornsök och Svenskt Hällristnings Forsknings Arkivs som bilddatabas som kunnat styrkas av dokumentation och verifierats att figuren omfattas av uppsatsens definition av voltigör.  De kvantitativa metoder som har använts har huvudsakligen varit för att göra en jämförande analys av de parametrar som ingår i vissa analysteman. Det har inte gått att inom ramarna för en uppsats på denna nivå utläsa något påvisbart samband med metallhandelns handelsvägar. / The purpose of this essay has been to analyze the design and geographical location of rock image voltigeurs within Västra Götaland in order to understand the possible relationship the rock voltigeurs may have had to the Bronze Age metal trade network. The primary source material consists of information about the bronze vaulter from Grevensvænge, Zealand, and the rock image vaulters in Fornsök and the Swedish Rock Art Research Archive as an image database that could be substantiated by documentation and verified that the figure falls within the essay's definition of vault. Quantitative methods that have been used have mainly been to make a comparative analysis of the parameters included in certain analysis themes. It has not been possible to infer any demonstrable relationship with the trade routes of the metal trade within the framework of an essay at this level.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine future international relations in the Arctic as a theoretical exercise based on realism and liberalism. As the ice cap shrinks, and the region's environment changes, developing costs will decrease allowing for resource-extraction while new transit routes emerge. The opportunities to develop resources and ship via the Arctic are economic and strategically valuable, altering the geopolitics of the region. This thesis seeks to explore how resource development and new transit routes will affect regional politics through the lens of two theories. The two theoretical approaches will examine states and actors' interests and possible actions. Concluding, that realism will best describe the Arctic as states strive to be the regional hegemon by controlling transit routes and resources or defending the regional status quo, creating tension and a security competition between the U.S., China, and Russia. States will jockey for position within institutions before the ice cap disappears and transit routes emerge. These states seek to grow regional governance in their favor, providing support for a liberal framework, and possibly creating a structure strong enough to reduce tension before states strive to be the Arctic hegemon.

This master thesis inquires into selected chapters from the late medieval history of the town Prachatice. The first part of the thesis deals with the unclear legal status of the town and with the issue of its promotion to the royal town and its subsequent pawnings in the 15th century. It is a question that has not been sufficiently reflected in literature yet and there is also no agreement whether Prachatice was a royal pawned town or a liege town. The second part discusses the issue of the economic status of the town Prachtice in the context of the Southern Bohemian salt business wherein Prachatice played a crucial role. This part of the thesis is based on a thorough analysis of the staple right of the town Prachatice and the right which covered the compulsory direction of the routes. Further, it deals with the competition of the town Prachatice in the import of salt to Bohemia and with the outline of the directions of the routes that were starting in Prachatice. These routes were the matters of disputes with other involved towns. This thesis is delimited by the period of the Late Middle Ages until the beginning or the first quarter of the 16th century. The attention is paid especially to the unsettled 15th century which brought a lot of turns of events into the history of the town. Key words:...

Jan KOCNA, Development of trade routes in Maka during the Hellenistic period and in the early Principate, master's thesis, FF UK, Prague 2019 This master's thesis aims to analyse the trade routes network of ancient Maka during the last three c. BC and first c. AD. In the course of this time frame the discussed region, covering the majority of land area of the contemporary United Arab Emirates and the northern Oman, enjoyed the benefits of a wide range of various cross-cultural and commercial contacts and constituted a key junction between India, Mesopotamia and Arabia proper. In a phased manner, the individual chapters will introduce each of the different elements contributing to the structure of the whole trade apparatus, and, on the basis of available (e. g. archaeological) data, attempt to designate the character of the position of specific Makan centers within the broader system of long-distance trade mechanisms. Both long-distance trade transformation processes emanating from the constant changes in Makan political vicinity and reorientation of originally mostly caravan driven trade to the maritime one will be brought into consideration. The observed phenomena will include variation in the arrangement of central import/export markets, or successive adjustments of the basic commodity groups and...