Diss.--Institute for Asian and African Studies--Helsinki--University of Helsinki, 1998? / Bibliogr. p. [255]-262.

Thèse de doctorat--Etudes germaniques--Paris 4, 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 659-676.

Thèse de doctorat : Histoire : Rennes 2 : 2007. / Bibliogr. p. 405-413. Index.

Zugl.: Köln, Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis--New York--Columbia university, 1909. / Notes bibliogr.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--University of Michigan, 1985. Titre de soutenance : P. Mich. 6925 : a new magical love charm. / Bibliogr. p. 123-132. Index.

The following dissertation is presented in two parts. The main part is focused on the collection of twelve jewellery pieces, which I designed and produced myself. In case of decorative objects I tried to find a balance of shapes, structures and materials. The jewellery is made from organic and natural resources which I often find charming and fascinating. The greatest inspiration for me had to be the world`s natural civilisations, which don{\crq}t regard the jewellery pieces just as decoration but for them represent also magical and spiritual meaning. In the theoretic part of my dissertation I focused on the comparison of jewellery in natural civilisations with the primate jewellery of mankind. In this part of my work I searched for the roots of magic and art in general and I discovered the connections with todays remaining natural civilisations {--} magical meaning of jewellery, use of material and meaningful ornaments. Here I also mentioned the use and representation of jewellery. Attempting to clarify the concept of amullet, talisman and fetish. All written text is supported by picture documentation. In the last chapter I summarised the main focus of my dissertation and reflected on the creative process of my work. The last part of my dissertation contains all photo documentation of the creative process.

The question of magic in the later middle ages has a rather long tradition in the Bohemian historical milieu in the argument over the manuscripts of Kues. However, it is only one of the very aspects of the subject, and others were until now more or less neglected. Therefore I would like to bring a new fresh perspective and clearly define the field of research into its dynamic complexity. My argument is composed from three integrally interconnected parts. Firstly, I should bring forward the question: What is magic? The exact definition of this word is still not agreed upon despite the grand effort of scholars not only from the last decades. By examination of the word "magic" I have to have as a condition a very good referential background for it. With the second question, I concentrate on diachronic of the historical context and its dynamics of the transfer and contra-transfer of learned magic in Bohemia. At last, I am taking into account the close investigation of the written sources and the overall dynamics of the bigger European picture of the period. The main argument proposed by this thesis, is that the used sources are predating the Kues manuscript and that in the 14th century the unprecedented growth of the artistic faculty of the Prague university, as one of the first, brought into play the...

Cette thèse fait suite à un travail de terrain mené de 2007 à 2010 dans un village d'agriculteurs-pêcheurs du sud-est de l'île de Zanzibar intégré à l'arc swahili. L'histoire du peuplement du village est placée dans la création et la dynamique de la société swahili depuis ses origines dans une perspective afro-centrée, afin d'analyser les raisons et les modes de la conversion des habitants à l'islam. Les populations ont construit dans le temps leur croyance religieuse de manière sélective, ce qui a maintenu le système de représentation et de pensée traditionnel. La recomposition contemporaine dans la communauté est explorée par le biais de l'organisation du village, de sa vie sociale et des traditions bantoues aux côtés de l'islam qui rythme le quotidien. La société, non figée, possède son libre arbitre en préservant une pluralité culturelle (place et rôle des ancêtres, cultes de possession etc.) et en ayant accepté une reconstitution avec des emprunts islamiques qui l'ont enrichie en termes de cohésion sociale et de valeurs morales notamment. Les pratiques magiques et sorcellaires largement détaillées, qui se trouvent au cœur de la démonstration, font apparaître que l'imaginaire collectif est assis sur un socle magique qui continue à expliquer les phénomènes de la maladie, de l'infortune etc. au delà des convictions religieuses musulmanes sincères des habitants. La magie et la sorcellerie, banales dans le quotidien, sont constituées d'une juxtaposition ou d'un assemblage de rituels opéré par une magie opportuniste qui utilise l'islam (manipulations diverses du Coran) pour renforcer les pratiques bantoues quand cela est nécessaire et légitimer des actes peu compatibles avec les principes de la religion. La dynamique de la sorcellerie africaine et islamique se trouve renforcée par de nouvelles données sociologiques (convoitise et jalousie exacerbées, montée des individualismes et perte d'influence des anciens). La thèse suggère, dans une orientation relativiste, que les représentations quotidiennes ancrées dans la matrice africaine bantoue demeurent le mode d'accès à la vérité du monde. Les compromis complexes et multiformes opérés avec l'islam à travers un système de «fertilisation croisée», permettent de maintenir un équilibre social et spirituel et d'affirmer une compatibilité des schémas entre eux dans une communauté qui a refusé de choisir entre deux systèmes de sens. / This thesis follows my field work carried out from 2007 to 2010 in a village located in the south eastern part of Zanzibar Island, part of the Swahili area and peopled by farmers and fishermen. The way the village became populated is related to the creation and the dynamics of the Swahili society in an afro-centred perspective so as to analyse the reasons for and the modes of the population's conversion to Islam. Over the years the peoples have secured their faith in Islam in a selective way, which has kept the traditional system of representation and thinking alive. The contemporary reconstitution within the community is scrutinized through the organisation of the village, its social life and Bantu traditions as well as the Islamic religion pulsing the population's daily life. This society, in constant evolution, keeps its own free will by safeguarding a cultural multiplicity (place and role of the ancestors, cults of possession…) and by accepting Islamic elements to be part and parcel of their community, which has made it both richer and stronger in terms of social cohesion and moral values. The fully-detailed magic and witchcraft practices at the core of the demonstration reveal that the collective imagination is deeply rooted in a magic base which keeps accounting for the phenomena of diseases, ill-fortune and so on, despite the sincere Muslim religious beliefs of the inhabitants. Magic and witchcraft, commonplace in their everyday life, are made up of a juxtaposition or an assembly of rituals initiated by some opportunistic magic which resorts to Islam (diverse manipulations of the Koran) in order to strengthen Bantu practices when necessary and to legitimize acts far from being compliant with religious tenets. The dynamics of African and Islamic witchcraft is being enhanced by new sociological data (a heightened sense of covetousness and jealousy, a steady rise in individualism and the ancestors gradually losing their clout). The present thesis, suggests in a relativist perspective that the daily representations remain firmly anchored in the African Bantu matrix as an access to the truth of the world and that the complex and multifaceted compromises with Islam through some « cross-fertilization » system contribute to maintaining a social and spiritual equilibrium and to advocating some compatibility between the different thinking patterns in a community which has refused to choose between the two of them.

Zugl.: Leiden, Univ., Diss., 2008