Global ETD Search

121	Grave rites and grave rights: anthropological study of the removal of farm graves in northern peri-urban Johannesburg Hill, Cherry Ann 02 1900 (has links) Text in English / In a diachronic and multi-sited study that extended from 2004 through 2012/2013 I deconstructed the sociocultural dynamics of relocating farm graves from the farm Zevenfontein in northern peri-urban Johannesburg. The graves at the focus of the study were some seventy-six graves removed from a northern portion of the farm in 2004 for a huge development project that commenced construction in 2010, and other graves removed in the 1980s from portions of the farm developed for residential estates in the 1990s. The study explored the people who dwelt on the farm and created the graveyards, the religious processes entailed in relocating the mortal remains of ancestors, the mortuary processes of exhuming and reburying ancestors, the disputations between and negotiating processes of landowners and grave owners, and the demands and demonstrations by farm workers and dwellers seeking redress for past human and cultural rights infringements. Although the topic of farm graves is well-referenced in land claims and sense of place discourses and is not in itself a new topic, this study provides original and in-depth information and insight on the broader picture of ancestral graves and their relocation, including the structuring of a community and its leaders and followers, it suggests answers to the question as to whether ancestral graves/graveyards can successfully and functionally be relocated. Not only are religious aspects examined in the study, but also the sociopolitical and economic dimensions of relocating graves are fully scrutinised in the context of farm workers and dwellers’ political awareness of and astuteness to the social and economic potential of farm graves and their relocation. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology) Ancestors Anthropology Burial Cultural Dainfern Demonstration Disjunction Dispute Economic Exhumation Farm dwellers Farm workers Followers Graves Johannesburg Leaders Mass graves Peri-urban Political Power relations Reburial Ritual Social Toyi-toyi Zandspruit Zevenfontein 393.10968221 Burial -- South Africa -- Johannesburg Ethnopsychology -- Social aspects
122	Bodies, spirits, and the living landscape : interpreting the Bible in Owamboland, Namibia John, Helen Catherine January 2016 (has links) This study explores the relationship between Christianity and autochthonous (indigenous, pre-Christian) worldviews and practices amongst the Aandonga of Owamboland, Northern Namibia. Using participant contributions from a series of Contextual Bible Study (CBS) sessions (with groups of men, women, and children), and supplemented by ethnographic contextualisation, it challenges the oft-contended notion that Christian worldviews and practices have erased the significance of African Traditional Religion for Ndonga (or wider Owambo) communities. The enduring significance of autochthonous worldviews and practices is explored using responses to six biblical texts, each of which relates to at least one of three themes: bodies, spirits, and landscapes. The study examines feasting bodies (The Parable of the Wedding Banquet), bleeding bodies (The Haemorrhaging Woman), and possessed bodies (Legion). It considers possession spirits (Legion), natural spirits (the so-called ‘Nature Miracles’), and ancestor spirits (Resurrection appearances). Perspectives on landscapes are highlighted particularly in relation to aspects of the natural environment (the ‘Nature Miracles’) and the locations explored by an itinerant demoniac (Legion). Responses to the texts engender, inter alia, discussions of contemporary perspectives on diviner-healers (oonganga), witchcraft (uulodhi), the homestead (egumbo), burial grounds (omayendo, oompampa), spirits (iiluli, oompwidhuli), ancestors (aathithi), material agency (for example, apotropaic amulets), and the ‘traditional’ wedding (ohango). Having analysed the ways in which autochthonous worldviews informed participants’ interpretations of the particular texts considered (Matthew 22:1-14 & Luke 14:7-11; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:26-39; Mark 4:35-41 & 6:45-52; Luke 24), each set of interpretations is brought into conversation with professional biblical scholarship. The study therefore highlights the ways in which these grassroots, ‘contextual’ interpretations might nuance New Testament interpretations returned by the Academy, particularly by highlighting the highly contextual nature of the latter.

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Grave rites and grave rights: anthropological study of the removal of farm graves in northern peri-urban Johannesburg

Bodies, spirits, and the living landscape : interpreting the Bible in Owamboland, Namibia