Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis applies the ontological turn to the war fiction of veteran authors, Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien. It argues that some veteran authors desire to communicate truth through fiction. Choosing to communicate truth through fiction hints at a new perspective on reality and existence that may not be readily accepted or understood by those who lack combat experience. The non-veteran understanding of war can be more informed by entertaining the idea that a multiplicity of realities exists. Affirming the combat veteran reality—the post-war ontology—and acknowledging the non-veteran reality—rooted in what I label “pre-war” or “civilian” ontology—helps enhance the reader’s understanding of what veteran authors attempt to communicate through fiction. This approach reframes the dialogic interaction between the reader and the perspectives presented in veteran author’s fiction through an emphasis on “radical alterity” to the point that telling and reading such stories represent distinct ontological journeys. Both Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien provide intriguing perspectives on reality through their fiction, particularly in the way their characters perceive and express morality, guilt, time, mortality, and even existence. Vonnegut and O’Brien’s war experiences inform these perspectives. This does not imply that the authors hold an identical perspective on the world or that combat experience yields an ontological understanding of the world common to every veteran. It simply asserts that applying the ontological turn to these writings, and the writings of other combat veterans, reveals that those who experience combat first-hand often walk away from those experiences with a changed ontological perspective.

Der geschichtswissenschaftliche Beitrag von Dorothea Eickemeyer, „Neue Berufe in der Säuglingsfürsorge. Die Säuglingspflegerin und Säuglingskrankenpflegerin 1898-1930“, widmet sich, konzentriert auf den Sächsischen und Dresdner Raum, einer Fragestellung, deren Anfänge ins Deutsche Reich datieren. Über die national-konkurrent aufgeladenen Diskursfelder von Mutterschaft und (sozialer) Mütterlichkeit einerseits und weiblicher Erwerbs- und Berufstätigkeit andererseits ist sie eng mit der deutschen Frauenbewegung verbunden. Die Verfasserin zeigt, wie um 1900 sinkende Geburtenraten, hohe Säuglingssterblichkeit und bevölkerungspolitische Ängste um ʻein Volk ohne Jugend‘ die Säuglingsfürsorge zu einem vielbeachteten Thema und bevorzugten Konzept werden ließen. Insbesondere Kinderärzte propagierten im Kontext verbesserten medizinischen Wissens neue Standards für die Pflege und Ernährung der Säuglinge. Diese adressierten – einmal mehr in der Geschlechtergeschichte – nicht nur die allgemeine Bevölkerung und speziell die deutschen Mütter, sondern eröffneten in der Form institutionalisierter und medikalisierter Säuglingspflege und -fürsorge Frauen schon seit den 1890iger Jahren attraktive Ausbildungsmöglichkeiten sowie professionelle und überdies genderstereotyp konforme Betätigungs- und Erwerbsfelder. Bei steigendem Bedarf an qualifizierten Fachkräften und befördert durch die bevölkerungspolitische Bedeutung des Themas nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg gelangen hier innerhalb weniger Jahrzehnte die Etablierung dieser neuen Berufe und die Schaffung einheitlicher Ausbildungsbestimmungen.

Der wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Beitrag der Oekonomin Bettina Heise (M. A.), Naturwissenschaftlerinnen im Spannungsfeld von Forschung, Unternehmung und sozialem Engagement um 1900, zielt als vergleichende intersektionale Untersuchung methodisch und inhaltlich auf genderspezifische Differenzen, Kontinuitäten und Normierungen ab, mit denen sich drei Spitzenforscherinnen um 1900 (Curie, Meitner, Kowalewskaja) bei der Integration privater, sozialer und institutioneller Rollenanforderungen konfrontiert sahen – sei es in den drei individuellen Biographien mit ihren kultur-, generations- und milieuspezifischen Lebens- und Forschungskontexten, sei es im Vergleich einzelner Aspekte der Fälle untereinander, oder sei es schließlich im kritischen Abgleich mit den Anforderungs- und FörderungsKulturen an beziehungsweise für heutige ‚MINT-Frauen‘. Fokussiert auf die (verbundenen) Problemfelder von akademischer Forschung, wissenschaftlichem Unternehmertum und politisch-sozialem Engagement, werden die genderspezifischen Normierungen in den individuellen Selbst- und Außenwahrnehmungen der drei ausgewählten Spitzenforscherinnen und die (oft evidenten) gendersemantischen Kontinuitäten im akademischen Fächerspektrum und seiner differenten Kulturen kritisch mitreflektiert.

[pt] Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar como entendimentos teóricos tradicionais (tanto nas Relações Internacionais como na teoria política no geral) sobre comunidades políticas são desafiados na contemporaneidade, tendo como ponto de vista as comunidades de fãs articuladas na internet (fandoms). Abordagens teóricas mainstream postulam que a comunidade política exemplar e a única que, portanto, tem impacto na condução da política e deve ser analisada é o Estado-nação. O Estado é tratado, por essas teorias, como uma entidade atemporal e a-histórica, natural ao sistema internacional. Estas características traçam limites às formas de imaginação da comunidade política, resultando em implicações acerca da territorialidade e vinculação do Estado com uma nação. Esses limites à imaginação possível da comunidade política têm sido cada vez mais questionados nas RI, inclusive através de análises que desnaturalizam o Estado como forma única de organização da vida política. A dissertação caminha nesta mesma direção, tendo os fandoms como ponto de vista. O argumento principal da dissertação é que fandoms apresentam desafios às concepções tradicionais do que são as comunidades políticas, especialmente através de dois aspectos: a territorialidade, visto que fandoms existem na internet, que é desterritorializada; e a nacionalidade, visto que os apegos emocionais que fundam e mantêm a comunidade existindo são ao objeto de fã e a outros fãs. / [en] This dissertation aims to investigate how traditional theoretical understandings (both in International Relations and in political theory in general) about political communities are challenged in contemporary times, through the point of view of fan communities articulated on the internet (fandoms). Mainstream theoretical approaches postulate that the exemplary political community and the only one that has an impact on politics and should be analysed is the nation-state. The state is treated, by these theories, as a timeless and a-historical entity, natural to the international system. These characteristics draw limits to the forms of imagination of the political community, resulting in implications about the territoriality and link between the state and a nation. These limits to the possible imagination of the political community have been increasingly questioned in IR, including through analyses that denaturalize the state as the only way of organizing political life. The dissertation moves in the same direction, taking fandoms as a point of view. The main argument of the dissertation is that fandoms present challenges to the traditional conceptions of what political communities are, especially through two aspects: territoriality, since fandoms exist on the internet, which is deterritorialized; and nationality, since the emotional attachments that found and maintain the community are to the fan object and other fans.

[pt] As histórias em quadrinhos quando aplicada no ensino de geografia possui e usa a imaginação com intuito de realizar algum plano através da organização dos fatos e seus significados imaginativos e criativos; manifestando uma preocupação séria pelas personalidades e eventos do passado [...] e um desejo de entender a ordem social à luz de seus antecedentes. (TUAN, 1990, p.439). De forma a pensar uma alternativa de conhecimento iremos destacar o Giro Decolonial que é aqui entendido como uma crítica epistemológica e ontológica que traz uma reflexão sobre nossa memória, nosso imaginário, nossa subjetividade, nossas formas de existir cotidianas. (CRUZ, 2017, p.25). Ancorados nestes princípios, através da uma atividade realizada para com os estudantes do Cap-UERJ de produção de histórias em quadrinhos, propomos a construção de um conhecimento através de um sistema coerente e identificável de sinais comunicativos que expressam a experiência única que cada um de nós tem da vida. (BRUNETTI, 2013, p.18). Para assim, proporcionar aos envolvidos na atividade a construção de um conhecimento escolar de Geografia que permite enxergar e entender as relações de poder presentes na sociedade, conferindo capacidade para os envolvidos se posicionar como sujeitos e agentes transformadores do real. / [en] Comic books when applied to geography teaching have and use imagination in order to carry out some plan through the organization of facts and their imaginative and creative meanings; manifesting a serious concern for the personalities and events of the past ... and a desire to understand the social order in the light of their background. (TUAN, 1990, p.439). In order to think about an alternative of knowledge, we will highlight the Decolonial Giro, which is understood here as an epistemological and ontological criticism that brings a reflection on our memory, our imaginary, our subjectivity, our daily ways of existing. (CRUZ, 2017, p.25). Anchored in these principles, through an activity carried out with Cap-UERJ students in the production of comic books, we propose the construction of knowledge through a coherent and identifiable system of communicative signs that express the unique experience that each of we have of life. (BRUNETTI, 2013, p.18). To do so, provide those involved in the activity with the construction of a school knowledge of Geography that allows them to see and understand the power relationships present in society, providing the ability for those involved to position themselves as subjects and agents that transform the real.

[pt] Parece haver uma propensão humana à ficção. Uma propensão não apenas a ficcionalizar, mas também a submergir em ficções as mais variadas. Metamórfica como os mitos e próxima ao rumor que criou as cosmogonias mais antigas, a ficção é a raiz do erro mas também o começo de toda produção de pensamento. Wolfgang Iser compreende essa propensão ao outramento como um pressuposto antropológico básico. Em seus trabalhos teóricos, Ricardo Piglia entende a ficção como via prioritária para se pensar a política. Partindo do encontro dessas concepções, esta tese apresenta uma investigação acerca das múltiplas relações entre ficção, política e metafísica, privilegiando a literatura e seu embate com o desconhecido. Em uma escrita que alia especulação teórica e investigação fabuladora, a análise dessas relações tem como percurso as concepções históricas acerca do conceito de ficção; a literatura que é atravessada pelo excesso (como as divindades, a violência, o erotismo, o horror cósmico e demais experiências desestabilizadoras); a possível obsolescência do realismo burguês frente ao Antropoceno; as contribuições que a chamada virada ontológica pode trazer não somente para o conceito de ficção, mas também para a compreensão da experiência literária como um todo; e, por fim, as forças fictícias (termo que Piglia retira de Paul Valéry) que atravessam o socius, conduzindo ou não à servidão. Os ensaios que compõem esta tese são animados por uma vontade fúngica, trançando alianças demoníacas entre diferentes pensadores e oxidando as barreiras que mantinham separadas e estanques a ficção, a política e a metafísica. / [en] There seems to be a human penchant for fiction. A propensity not only to fictionalize, but also to submerge in the most varied fictions. Metamorphic like myths and close to the rumor that created the oldest cosmogonies, fiction is the root of error but also the beginning of all production of thought. Wolfgang Iser understands this propensity for otherness as a basic anthropological assumption. In his theoretical works, Ricardo Piglia understands fiction as a priority way to think about politics. Starting from the meeting of these conceptions, this thesis presents an investigation about the multiple relations between fiction, politics and metaphysics, privileging literature and its clash with the unknown. In a writing that combines theoretical speculation and fabulous investigation, the analysis of these relationships takes as its route the historical conceptualizations about the concept of fiction; literature that is crossed by excess (such as divinities, violence, eroticism, cosmic horror and other destabilizing experiences); the possible obsolescence of bourgeois realism in the face of the Anthropocene; the contributions that the so-called ontological turn can bring not only to the concept of fiction, but also to the understanding of literary experience as a whole; and, finally, the fictitious forces (a term that Piglia takes from Paul Valéry) that cross the socius, leading or not to servitude. The essays that make up this thesis are animated by a fungal will, weaving demonic alliances between different thinkers and oxidizing the barriers that kept fiction, politics and metaphysics separated.

No description available.

Dans cette thèse, j'étudie les pratiques de sorcellerie et de guérison chez les Khasi, une communauté tribale du nord-est de l'Inde. Ceux-ci forment la majorité de la population de l'état du Meghalaya. À la suite de la colonisation britannique, ils se sont principalement convertis au Christianisme. Cependant, malgré leur adoption d’un mode de vie ancrée dans la modernité et les changements socioculturels subséquents, les discours sur la sorcellerie prévalent encore aujourd'hui. Selon les Khasi, les pratiques de sorcellerie sont encore très répandues et plusieurs malédictions continuent d'affecter la population. Afin de lutter contre ce fléau, la guérison traditionnelle est fréquemment recherchée. Pour les Khasi, la preuve de l’existence de la sorcellerie se trouve dans les symptômes physiques ressentis par les victimes et par les morts mystérieuses qui se succèdent. Afin de mieux comprendre la réalité de la sorcellerie chez les Khasi, j'utilise l'approche théorique et méthodologique du tournant ontologique en anthropologie. Elle permet de jeter une lumière nouvelle sur l’étude de la sorcellerie. En effet, tout au long de l'histoire de l’anthropologie, les chercheurs ont voulu donner un sens à l'ensemble complexe de croyances et de pratiques qu'est la sorcellerie. Ils l'ont surtout expliqué comme faisant partie de la rationalité des peuples «primitifs», ou en réaction à des bouleversements sociaux. Le tournant ontologique apporte une nouvelle manière de comprendre la sorcellerie et sa réalité. Dans cette thèse, je m’appuie sur les travaux de Strathern, Descola et Viveiros De Castro, entre autres, pour montrer comment la sorcellerie peut être construite comme une réalité pour les anthropologues et les personnes qu'ils étudient. Je cherche à répondre à plusieurs questions : qu’est-ce que la sorcellerie pour les habitants du Meghalaya ? Comment la conceptualisent-ils ? Et quelle devrait être ma position d’anthropologue en matière de sorcellerie ? J'explore d'abord l'histoire sociopolitique des Khasi. Je présente un survol des événements marquants de l'histoire régionale récente, avant de souligner les particularités culturelles du groupe. Je démontre ensuite comment le paysage de guérison de Meghalaya est varié : on y retrouve des guérisseurs de religion tribale, hindoue, chrétienne et musulmane. Je donne un aperçu de leur approche respective de la sorcellerie. Je me concentre ensuite sur l'écosystème du mal à Meghalaya, expliquant et détaillant les principales malédictions affectant les Khasi et leurs voisins. Je présente la quête thérapeutique d’une famille qui a souffert de nombreuses pertes et tragédies et qui a cherché de l’aide auprès de guérisseurs de diverses confessions et ethnicités. À la suite de cette analyse, je définis la sorcellerie et la guérison selon le monde ontologique Khasi. Ces définitions émergent de la construction de la personne chez les Khasi et de la relation qu'ils entretiennent avec des entités non humaines. Dans leur monde ontologique, il est possible d'être maudit par des entités maléfiques et de guérir grâce aux dieux et déesses. Cette réalité est construite et validée à la fois par les guérisseurs et leurs patients. Ils partagent pour la plupart une compréhension commune du monde et du réel. / In this thesis, I study the practices of witchcraft among the Khasi, a tribal people of northeast India. The Khasi form most of the population of the state of Meghalaya. Following British colonization, they mainly converted to Christianity. However, despite adopting a modern lifestyle and the major socio-cultural changes it has brought, discourse on witchcraft still prevails today. According to the Khasi, witchcraft practices are widespread, and several curses continue to affect the population. In order to fight this scourge, traditional healing is frequently sought by the Khasi. From their point of view, proof of the existence of witchcraft can be found in the physical symptoms experienced by the victims and the mysterious deaths of many people. To better understand reality of witchcraft for the Khasi, I use the theoretical and methodological approach of the ontological shift in anthropology, because it sheds new light on the study of witchcraft. Indeed, throughout the history of anthropology, researchers have sought to make sense of the complex set of practices that is witchcraft. They have explained it as part of the rationality of "primitive" peoples, or as a reaction to social woes. The ontological turn offers a new way of understanding witchcraft and its reality. In this thesis, I draw upon the work of Strathern, Descola, and Viveiros De Castro, among others, to show how witchcraft can be constructed as a reality for both anthropologists and the people they study. I seek to answer several questions: what is witchcraft for the inhabitants of Meghalaya? How do they conceptualize it? How is this conception of witchcraft defined and redefined in a contemporary world? And finally, what should be my position as an anthropologist in regard to witchcraft? To answer these questions, I first explore the socio-political history of the Khasi, presenting a survey of the significant events in recent regional history, before highlighting the cultural particularities of the group. I then demonstrate how the healing landscape of Meghalaya is varied. I divide these practices according to the religion of the healers: tribal, Hindu, Christian and Muslim, and give an overview of their respective approach to witchcraft. I then focus on the ecosystem of evil in Meghalaya, explaining and detailing the major curses affecting the Khasi and their neighbours. I present the therapeutic quest of a family that had suffered many losses and sought out healers of different faiths and ethnicities. Considering this analysis, I define witchcraft and healing as it appears in the Khasi ontological world and show how they emerge from the construction of personhood among the Khasi, and from the relationship they have with non-human entities. The Khasi build an ontological world where it is possible to be cursed by evil entities and to be healed by gods and goddesses. This reality is constructed and validated by both healers and their patients. For the most part, they share a common understanding of the world and of what is real.

[pt] Este trabalho se constitui como um exercício tradutório especulativo que se realiza entre os universos conceituais do povo Araweté (povo Tupi-Guarani) e da cosmologia contemporânea, tal como apresentados pelo antropólogo Eduardo Viveiros de Castro e pelo cosmólogo Mario Novello, respectivamente. Parte-se, de um lado, da reivindicação fundamental que a cosmologia contemporânea faz de pensar a si própria através da recuperação da distinção entre as propriedades locais e globais do cosmos, levando à necessidade de um agenciamento da relação entre elas; e, de outro, da maneira como a antropologia contemporânea se pensa como um procedimento de tradução entre universos de pensamento que se dá pela explicitação das diferenças existentes entre eles, tal como proposto por Viveiros de Castro. Assim orientada, a pesquisa busca identificar na interpretação feita por Viveiros de Castro dos Araweté aquilo que poderia ser reconhecido como local e global, para então responder à seguinte questão: que efeitos seriam produzidos no conceito de cosmologia, tal como pensado desde o ponto de vista crítico de Novello, quando concebido desde o ponto de vista Araweté, produzido por tal interpretação? Com intenção de fazer jus àquilo que a antropologia hoje coloca como ação fundamental para si enquanto prática, levar a sério o pensamento do outro, este trabalho propõe como resultado principal uma imagem de cosmologia que, ao invés de se pensar através da necessidade de encontrar a solidariedade máxima entre diferentes aspectos de um mesmo mundo (uma forma de produzir coerência entre aspectos locais e globais), seria aquilo que só se constitui quando se relacionam universos ontológicos distintos a partir de um modelo de relação que, para garantir a diferença existente entre esses mundos, precisa ser de transformação. Pensada dessa maneira, a cosmologia, ao invés de oferecer uma imagem de mundo como sendo aquilo que se constitui a partir do que há de comum entre os diferentes pontos de vista que o compõem, propõe, de outra maneira, um mundo que só existe quando universos distintos podem se relacionar, de forma tal que a diferença existente entre eles seja total. / [en] This work is constituted as a speculative translational exercise conducted between the conceptual universe of the (Tupi-Guarani) Araweté people and contemporary cosmology, as presented by the anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and the cosmologist Mario Novello, respectively. The starting point for this work lies, first, in the fundamental claims made by contemporary cosmology as it recovers a distinction between local and global cosmological properties, leading to an assemblage of the relation between them. Second, it also begins withcontemporary anthropology s understanding of itself as a procedure for translating between conceptual worlds by making the differences between them explicit, as proposed by Viveiros de Castro. In this way, and through Viveiros de Castro s interpretation of Araweté cosmology, this research seeks to identify what could be taken as their views on the local and the global, in order to respond to the following question: what effects are produced on the concept of cosmology,critically defined by Novello, when conceived through the Araweté point of view, as interpreted by Viveiros de Castro? With the aim of doing justice to the practice that contemporary anthropology identifies as fundamental for itself, taking seriously other ways of thinking, this dissertation proposes that a primary result is an image of cosmology that – rather than seeking maximum solidarity between the different aspects of a single world (which is one way of producing coherence between local and global aspects) – could only be constituted when different ontological universes are placed in relation to each other. This requires a relational model that needs to be transformational to guarantee the differences between those worlds. Thought about in this way, instead of offering an image of one world as constituted through what is common between different points of view, cosmologycould propose, in another way, a world that only exists when distinct universes engage each other through total difference.

Sachant que les différents contextes d’interaction ont un impact sur la manière dont la conversation se déroule, le présent mémoire se concentre sur les moyens de communication à distance les plus récents : la vidéoconférence et la réalité virtuelle (VR). Nous posons la question suivante : en quoi la coordination de la conversation en réalité virtuelle est-elle différente de celle en vidéoconférence ? Pour répondre à cette question, nous poursuivons deux objectifs : (1) comparer la fréquence et la durée des silences et des chevauchements dans les différents contextes et (2) décrire les moments où il y a un bris dans la fluidité de la conversation dans chaque contexte, puis comparer ces événements entre les contextes. Nos résultats montrent que la VR n’influence pas la coordination de la conversation de la même manière que la vidéoconférence. Entre autres, les silences en VR sont plus longs et plus nombreux. De plus, les silences et les chevauchements en VR surviennent à des moments différents et ils se déroulent différemment. Les différences entre la VR et la vidéoconférence pourraient s’expliquer, entre autres, par la latence plus grande en VR, la plus grande familiarité des individus avec le contexte en vidéoconférence, les limites de la VR dans la transmission de l’information visuelle fine et le sentiment de coprésence qui se manifeste différemment dans chacun des contextes. Notre étude apporte une compréhension nuancée des interactions en vidéoconférence et en VR et souhaite encourager le développement de la recherche sur ces contextes afin d’en promouvoir une utilisation plus avisée. / We know that conversations are influenced by the context in which they take place. Therefore, this paper focuses on how conversation is managed in new forms of remote communication: videoconference and virtual reality (VR). We ask this question: how is the coordination in VR different than the coordination in videoconference? To answer this question, we pursue two objectives: (1) to compare frequency and duration of silences and overlaps between the contexts and (2) to describe what happens when the conversation flow is disturbed and then to compare those events between the contexts. Our results show that VR influences coordination between interlocutors differently than videoconference. Silences in VR are longer and happen more often than in videoconference. Moreover, silences and overlaps take place at different points in VR conversations and they unfold in a different way. The differences between VR and videoconference might be explained by the fact that there is a greater latency in VR, that participants are less familiar with the context of VR, that VR is limited in its transmission of non-verbal communication and that VR has a different effect on social presence. Our study sheds light on the importance of learning more about this new context of interaction (VR) before using it on a larger scale for interventions (e.g. with different clinical populations). Our conclusion can serve as a starting point for researchers who wish to contribute to a better understanding of the consequences of using VR as a means of communication.