The cultural significance of effigy pipes among southeastern groups during the Mississippian period (A.D. 1000-1600) has yet to be fully understood. Recent studies, however, have provided new archaeological contexts for framing explanations of their possible use and distribution among such groups. Apart from conjectures about their use as ceremonial objects, selection for effigy pipes in the Mississippian Southeast was directly related to fluctuating environmental and demographic conditions under which such objects were manufactured and distributed. These conditions provided the appropriate context for their emergence as costly signaling devices through which elite or special interest groups advertised fitness levels, typically expressed in displays of power and prestige. As signaling devices, effigy pipes attained their widest distribution in the Southeast during a time of environmental and demographic stability. Their decline was primarily the result of increasing climatic instability and widespread demographic upheaval--events that precipitated major disruptions in commercial and economic relations.

This dissertation provides an iconographic interpretation of a group of Ancient Puebloan human effigy vessels and fragments from the American Southwest, dating to the Pueblo II period, c. 900 -1150 CE. Initially, this project focuses on Ancient Puebloan human effigy vessels from three specific collections; a single vessel in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., a human effigy vessel in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the so-called Putnam Human Effigy Jar from Chaco Canyon at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. This study interprets these three vessels primarily as expressive sculptural forms, as opposed to ritual or utilitarian objects. Stylistically and formally, these vessels are similar to several other human effigy vessels attributed to the Ancient Puebloan tradition. Two catalogs have been compiled for this study. Catalog A consists of Ancient Puebloan style human effigy. Catalog B presents comparable human effigy vessels created in a variety of ancient Southwestern styles, related to, but considered distinct from the Ancient Puebloan style. Formal and iconographic similarities between human effigy vessels in these cultures and the Ancient Puebloan culture suggest a shared cultural phenomenon, or, at the very least, is evidence of regional cultural relationships. Similar human effigy vessels can also be found outside of the ancient Greater Southwest in Precolumbian cultures. Of particular scholarly interest is the nature of the perceived relationship between the Ancient Puebloan tradition and the cultures of Casas Grandes, West Mexico, and Mesoamerica. The analysis of these three vessels and their associated tradition provides additional insight into this on-going scholarly discussion.

Actuellement, le concept « idole » a basculé dans la sphère triviale du culte de personnes et renferme, néanmoins, des traces du sens antique du mot. Le terme d’idole met l’accent sur le moment de la vénération et c’est précisément là que réside la difficulté : la combinaison de l’adoration et de la plasticité d'une image va à l’encontre de la théologie de l’Ancien Testament de la vénération unique et sans image de JHWH. Le point de départ de cette étude est le mot grec eidôlon, qui est ancré dans le sujet de l’image des divinités depuis la Septante et qui fait office de terme fixe pour désigner les déités étrangères. Il en ressort qu’il n’existe pas d’expression standard pour une image de culte dans la culture grecque. La comparaison et l’analyse exacte des équivalents hébreux et grecs forment la majeure partie de la thèse. Dans le cas d’eidôlon il n’existe pas d’équivalent standard mais un bon nombre de termes hébreux qui sont tous reproduits par le terme grec dans la LXX. Par ailleurs, le terme eidôlon apparaît dans des textes d’importance cruciale pour la foi israélite (voir sa fréquence dans le deuxième commandement du Décalogue et dans le Chant de Moïse). Il s’agit d’une manœuvre stratégique et théologique des traducteurs, car ce terme renferme tous les éléments majeurs des divinités étrangères. Il existe donc une différenciation claire entre le dieu d’Israël et toutes les autres divinités. / The concept “idol” derives from ancient Greek, which is still used today. Nowadays, an Idol designates first and foremost the cult of personality but the traces of the ancient meaning are partly preserved. The term idol focuses on the veneration of foreign deities and their pictorial representations. Therefore, idols contrast with the monotheism and an iconism of the god of Israel. This study elaborates the original meaning of the Greek word eidôlon which becomes the standard expression for divine images since its usage in the Septuagint and afterwards. It seems that there did not exist a major term for cult images in the Greek culture. The comparison and the exact analysis of the Hebrew and Greek equivalents form the major part of the thesis. In the case of eidôlon there does not exist a Hebrew standard equivalent but a variety of Hebrew lexemes which are all translated by the Greek word in the Septuagint. In general, eidôlon appears in important and authoritative texts (Exodus 20: the Second Commandment,Deuteronomy 32: The Song of Moses). Concerning the choice of terminology, eidôlon is astrategic and theological move of the translators because this Greek expression includes allmajor characteristics of foreign deities. A clear distinction between JHWH the god of Israel andall other deities becomes clear.

Substantiality and sense of the work is charting of the historical evolution of the affinity between and children and the indisputable qualitative movement towards child´s (or if zou like pupil´s) needs and possibilities. Within this evolution the work presents the board range of opinions and ways not only from the sections of pedagogy but psychology, philosophy and theology too. It showa obvious and less obvious mistakes and isufficiencies by many exemples, which perprtrate - in former times and nowadays - those who participate in the upbringing and education of children. They strive to afford (propose) some clues on how you can beware of those insufficiencies or how reduce them. There are many citations of importhant ideas of the front experts from out prenominant branches in this work, subserve for quiding for the author of the work.

Anthropomorphic Effigy Vases: A Silvermith’s Production during the Late Intermediate Period and Late HorizonAnthropomorphic effigy vases have been classified, without any scientific basis, as belonging to the Chimu Culture. This investigation shows how these kinds of vases are more related in iconography as well as in provenance with the iconography of the central coast of Peru. In a selection of nine vases analysed, we determine different techniques of manufacture, which indicate the high technological complexity achieved by the precolumbian metal smiths during the Late Intermediate period and the Late Horizon. This study seeks to clarify, with the help of historic and ethnographic documentation, the social importance of the silversmith’s workshops that elaborated the effigy vases in question. We hope through the study of these archaeological remains and their comparison with historical texts, to decipher the symbolic and ritual value, as well as possible religious influences in their manufacture along the Peruvian coast. Finally, the possible process used by the coastal metal smiths in the manufacture of the effigy vases was identified by means of electronic microscope and metalographic analysis. / Desde hace mucho tiempo, un tipo especial de objetos rituales —los vasos-efigie antropomorfos de metal— han sido clasificados, sin sustento científico, como pertenecientes a la cultura Chimú. La investigación llevada a cabo por las autoras demuestra cómo este tipo de vasos está más relacionado, tanto en iconografía como en procedencia, con la temática iconográfica de la costa central del Perú. Se trata de un corpus de nueve vasos analizados con el que se determinaron diferentes técnicas de manufactura que muestran la alta complejidad tecnológica lograda por los orfebres tanto en el Periodo Intermedio Tardío como en el Horizonte Tardío. Para la realización de dicha investigación se ha utilizado documentación tanto histórica como etnográfica, las que permitieron explicar la posible importancia social de los talleres de los orfebres o plateros que manufacturaron dichos vasos. Estudios comparativos entre los restos arqueológicos con textos históricos ayudaron a descifrar el valor simbólico o ritual para el que fueron elaborados y su posible influencia religiosa en otros lugares de la costa peruana. Por último, los análisis metalográficos y microscopía electrónica identificaron las posibles formas de manufactura utilizadas en estos vasos por los antiguos orfebres o plateros de la costa.