<p> In this dissertation, I explore agricultural practices as a window into ecocultural communication. Using agricultural practices of villagers in Village G, Oman, as a case study, I explore the ways in which villagers and government officials conceptualize humanature relations and the forces that enhance and/or impede these relations. My specific goals for this study were: (1) to build an interpretive understanding of ecocultural orientations of villagers and officials in Oman and how they conceptualize their humanature relations; (2) to critically examine ideologies and uncover structural forces that enable/constrain humanature relations; and (3) to co-create community engagement work that honors the ecocultural wisdom of farmers, promotes economic viability, and enhances ecocultural sustainability. Accordingly, I ask a set of three questions: RQ 1: What grassroots core ecocultural premises do Omani villagers communicate?, RQ 2: What core ecocultural premises do official government documents and officials discourse communicate in Oman?, and RQ 3: How does analysis of core components of critical community engagement inform researcher-villager-governmental collaborations to design sustainable practices? To answer these questions, I collected data through focus groups, individual interviews, participant observation and official government documents. Using Cultural Discourse Analysis (Carbaugh, 2007) and Community Engagement Framework (Collier, 2014) I identify three ecocultural premises in grassroots discourse: (1) <i>Relations-in-place </i>, (2) <i>kinship-in-place</i> and (3) <i>nurturance-in-place </i>, and four ecocultural premises in governmental discourse: (1) Modern agriculture is more effective than traditional agriculture, (2) Imported food and modern technology feed a growing population, (3) Technologized farming attracts youth, (4) Modern agriculture and profit-motivated practices achieve sustainability but traditional farming is not sustainable. I offer a date palm metaphor as an organizing principle that depicts humanature relations and the contextual factors that enhance and/or hinder these relations. Because date palms have shown resilience over harsh ecological conditions when water was scarce in Oman and heat was high, in this project, I use the date palm as a metaphor that exhibits an alternative discourse to globalized neoliberal ideological discourses.</p><p>

Within the southeastern Tauern Window, the Sonnblick Dome is a large, NE-verging, antiformal structure composed of orthogneisses of the Zentralgneis Complex. This unit represents part of the European crystalline basement, or Penninic domain, over which the Adriatic microplate was thrust during Alpine continental collision. The igneous precursors to the gneisses formed as granitoids above a subduction zone during the Hercynian. During Alpine continental collision, overthrusting of the African-derived Austroalpine units toward the northwest produced a foliation that becomes more intense towards the tectonic contact of the gneiss and the overlying Peripheral Schieferhülle. This foliation was folded during the formation of the Sonnblick Dome, which is interpreted to have developed during progressive top-to-NW shearing in the hangingwall of an oblique ramp. Shear zones also developed oblique to the northwest transport direction and led to imbrication in the basement. These shear zones are commonly marked by retrogression of the primary mineralogy and the development of mica-schists. Although this alteration is associated with syn-deformational fluid infiltration, a spatial relationship between reaction site and deformation suggests that the energy associated with deformation contributed to reactions during shear zone formation. As a response to tectonic thickening, pressures and temperatures in the Pennine basement increased. Peak Alpine metamorphic conditions are estimated to be 540±50°C and 8±lkbar and probably represent conditions developed during uplift from initially greater depths. White mica isotopic ages suggest that the peak of metamorphism took place at 25-28Ma, with older ages being observed towards the southeastern end of the Dome. Post-metamorphic cooling rates appear to be variable throughout the Dome, with faster rates being found for the southeastern end of the Dome. After 20Ma ago, cooling rates around the Dome became more uniform (17-27°C/Ma). Rapid cooling rates in the area are associated with rapid, post-metamorphic uplift rates. These were probably accomodated by gravity-driven extension of the tectonically thickened crust. Evidence for post-metamorphic extension is represented by ductile shear bands, which are associated with thinning of the more micaceous units found at higher levels in the Dome.

M.Sc. (Geology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study contributes to the cultural and intellectual history of the early modern Middle East by analyzing how books were produced and circulated, and which audiences existed for various types of books in the Ottoman capital, Istanbul. Focusing on the 17th century, I draw upon the material evidence of manuscripts, statistical and network analysis of archival sources, as well as upon narrative and biographical texts. My analysis shows the limitations of conventional socio-economic categories for writing Ottoman cultural history, and argues for a new approach to writing cultural history. Because almost all of the books in Istanbul were produced by hand, this research offers a counterpoint to the much-explored narrative of printed books. In early modern Istanbul, book-making was highly decentralized. Readers could and did create their own books, sometimes for reasons of economy and sometimes to achieve a special closeness to the work. In fact, the quintessential book in early modern Istanbul was not a fancy volume, but a humble personal notebook created from folded leaves of paper and filled with excerpts or short treatises. Because it was possible to copy and own just the portion of a book that was of interest, fragmented and partial texts were the norm. As a result, libraries that collected reliable and complete texts were an essential part of book circulation. These libraries were set up for copying as much as for reading. I introduce an exemplar manuscript that was held for this very purpose. Ownership of books was most highly concentrated among those who bore the title of efendi. Men, especially wealthy men, were also more likely to be bookowners than others, but book ownership was not widespread. However, people from every segment of society came into contact with books and the texts they contained, often as listeners rather than readers. This dissertation inverts a common paradigm for writing cultural history. Rather than map cultural currents onto predetermined social groups, I begin with clusters of books that anecdotally or statistically belong together. I then use manuscript evidence such as reading statements, as well as probate inventories, to suggest their audiences. Each book had its natural ecology: the texts with which it naturally belonged because of how it was used and by whom. Books had affinities that crossed traditional subject boundaries. For example, the constellation of medrese books most frequently owned together includes law, grammar, and lexicography. Less rarified books also had their own ecologies. A single title might appear both as a deluxe book intended for display in a refined home and as a scrappy storybook meant to be read aloud in a boisterous coffeehouse setting. In such a way, some texts could transcend social categories altogether. / History

This dissertation focuses on preachers as key actors in the rise of a political public sphere in the early modern Ottoman Empire. Recently, literature on the political importance of corporate bodies and voluntary associations has transformed the understanding of the early modern Ottoman polity. Emphasis has shifted from the valorization of centralized institutions to understanding power as negotiated between the court and other stakeholders. My dissertation joins in this collective effort by way of studying preachers, and through them examining the negotiation of religious authority between the central administration and civic groups. I depict preachers as “mediating” religious power between the elite and the non-elite, and between the written and the oral cultures. I argue that the production of religious doctrine and authority took place at this intermediary space of encounter. This study of early modern Islam with reference to the frame of public sphere has two main implications. Firstly, I present a “preacher-political advisor” type in order to demonstrate that the critical potential of religion was preserved in a new guise. Secondly, I show that informal circles of education gained primacy in the seventeenth century, giving rise to the vernacularization of formal sciences. The close reading of the manuscript sources left by preachers and their pupils also constitutes the first systematic exploration of the intersection between orality and literacy, and an important contribution to the study of Ottoman popular culture. / Middle Eastern Studies Committee

<p> Palestine exists in our minds, not in nature. If Palestine doesn&rsquo;t exist, why do we identify with it? We identify with Palestine, first, because it has a name. In fact, we <i>only</i> identify with places we&rsquo;ve named. Unnamed places, such as 22&deg;29'05&rdquo;N 22.48 to 53&deg;46'19&rdquo;E 53.77, have no identities based on them. But we don&rsquo;t identify with every place we&rsquo;ve named. We need to hear stories about a place if we are going to identify with it, stories about famines and wars, conquests and tribes, history, geography, economy, archeology and millions more topics. The more engaging the stories, the more likely we are to identify with places like Palestine. We also make maps of places like Palestine. The more maps we make, the more likely we are to identify with places like Palestine as well. Finally, we distinguish Palestine from other places. We exaggerate its glory and beauty and claim we have a special relationship to it. This dissertation explains when, how and why it all happened.</p><p>

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Archaeological research into the Late Islamic period in the Middle East is a fertile field which has rarely been plowed, especially for the period of the Ottoman Empire. A great potential exists for using archaeological materials to address questions of social and historical significance for the integration of the region into the modern world system. In this dissertation, I examine archaeological assemblages from 1500 to 1900, in order to contribute an understanding of consumption and material culture for Middle Eastern archaeology and to shed light on aspects of social change for Palestine during the rule of the Ottoman Empire (1516-1917). I review the state of knowledge on several categories of material culture (settlement pattern, architecture, tombstones, foodways, and ceramics), then focus on clay tobacco pipes as an example of material two levels: (1) their presence in the archaeological record provides chronological tools for furthering archaeological excavations and (2) their synchronic and diachronic patterns are an entry point to discussing societal tensions and global processes of change in the region. The chronological discussions of tobacco pipes provides a tool for differentiating material events--a necessary step for uncovering differences from the archaeological record. The historical background on tobacco as a commodity allows interpretations of the material culture within its social dimensions. Both in terms of diversity of styles over time and their function, the clay tobacco pipes from multiple archaeological sites provide insights into questions of history and social diversity for Palestine. These objects are the case study in this work; I address theoretical issues relating to the study of material culture, methodology for linking objects to social action, techniques for differentiating the corpus of archaeological data, and interpretations of archaeological data within an historical anthropological context. The interpretations lead to a framework for analyzing cultural landscape across the area which is today Israel. This study is conceptualized as the first steps towards an archaeology of Palestine during the Ottoman centuries and an avenue towards an archaeology of capitalism in the Middle East, a way to break down the divide between past and present in the region.