Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Lund, 1998. / English abstract inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-302).

This thesis explores the nature and emergence of early body ornamentation, which has long been at the forefront of the debate on modern human origins. According to most prehistorians, ornamental shell beads are unequivocal proxies for behavioural and cognitive "modernity", for they are considered the arbitrary products of symbolically-capable brains. In my dissertation, I argue against the "symbolic" dictum of reducing material signification to linguistic terms, and attributing its creation to a representational mechanism. For one, the significative meaning of material culture is not entirely arbitrary, because concepts can be founded on physical properties and affordances. Moreover, material signification is not the epiphenomenal product of innate cognitive modules, for the mind is not a computational device that processes internal representations before externalising them through behaviour. I thus suggest that these theoretical fallacies about the nature and emergence of material signification can be overcome by combining a pragmatic semiotic approach with an enactive theory of cognition. Briefly put, a pragmatic semiotic theory describes the nature of material signification by recognising that significative concepts can be founded on physical qualities and relations, whereas an enactive theory of cognition accounts for the emergence of material signification by explaining how significative concepts are brought forth via the constitutive entwinement of mind and matter. Through the synergistic fusion of these theoretical tenets, the origins of early body ornamentation can be examined from a developmental perspective that treats the generation of significative meaning as the emergent product of material engagement. In its light, the preoccupation of most evolutionary archaeologists with the notion of "modernity" appears to be inherently problematic. It is therefore ultimately proposed that the dominant symbolic interpretation of material signification need be replaced with a pragmatic and enactive theory of cognitive semiotics that is suitably geared to trace the evolution of prehistoric material signs.

The master thesis works measures of phenotypic traits and unique data of pairing of wild living grey partridges. The secondary sexual traits and theirs variability is described. Especially the relationship between the ornamental traits and the pairing success was researched. The results proved the greater pairing success of males with the larger melanin breast patch and the greater quality of the mate in females with the larger breast patch. The strategy of male floaters, which are realatively well ornamented is discussed.

abstract: From the time it was written, the aria "Largo al factotum" from Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia has been performed and ornamented in many different ways. The present study is an inventory and analysis of ornaments sung in 33 recordings from 1900 to 2011 and the major differences that they exhibit one from another. The singers in this study are baritones with international careers, who have performed the role of Figaro either at the Metropolitan Opera (New York) or at La Scala (Milan). The study identifies and tracks some of the changes in the ornamentation of the aria by noting common traits and new approaches across the one hundred eleven years of practice illustrated by the recordings. / Dissertation/Thesis / A Spreadsheet of the Artists and Ornaments Analyzed in Largo al factotum / March 6 2014 Andrew Briggs Lecture Recital Presentation / D.M.A. Music 2014

Sacred spaces have long existed due to their importance as a symbol of belief. Structures are designed to be timeless and forever lasting, representing the essence of faith. In this case, a Mosque has been designed for a site in La Jolla, California, keeping the sacred practices of the religion in mind during design composition. This includes the importance of connectivity for every man and woman, to God. The segregated praying areas for men and women are essential aspects of the design; from entering the site, the common area or courtyard at the center, to the separate walkways for each gender, symbolize the importance of gender segregation and yet a common ground for unity and equality at the holy site. A walk through the corridor leads to the washing area for self cleansing and ritual ablution in preparation for entering the sacred space for prayers, the entrance to a space for a spiritual connection with God. / Master of Architecture

Yes / The extensive use of mollusc shell as a versatile raw material is testament to its importance in prehistoric times. The consistent choice of certain species for different purposes, including the making of ornaments, is a direct representation of how humans viewed and exploited their environment. The necessary taxonomic information, however, is often impossible to obtain from objects that are small, heavily worked or degraded. Here we propose a novel biogeochemical approach to track the biological origin of prehistoric mollusc shell. We conducted an in-depth study of archaeological ornaments using microstructural, geochemical and biomolecular analyses, including ‘palaeoshellomics’, the first application of palaeoproteomics to mollusc shells (and indeed to any invertebrate calcified tissue). We reveal the consistent use of locally-sourced freshwater mother-of-pearl for the standardized manufacture of ‘double-buttons’. This craft is found throughout Europe between 4200–3800 BCE, highlighting the ornament-makers’ profound knowledge of the biogeosphere and the existence of cross-cultural traditions. / Ministry of Education, Universities and Research Young Researcher: European Commission PERG-GA-2010-26842: Leverhulme Trust: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique: Campus France, Universita` Italo-Francese PHC Galile´ programme

Abstract Sexual ornaments have developed in a very wide variety of animal taxa to increase fitness by improving mating success. How increased mating rate improves fitness is obvious in the case of most males: each mating provides more offspring. Whether more matings benefit females, whose fecundity is limited by resources and not mates, is unclear. Mate choice is linked to ornamentation, when individuals of one sex choose who to mate with based on the ornamentation in members of the other sex. Ornaments may work as a basis for mate choice due to conveying information about the quality of the mate. Mate choice may then lead to intrasexual competition for mates in the chosen sex as animals try to outcompete their neighbours and attract more mates. My aim in this thesis is to study the purpose and costs of female ornamentation as well as female competition for males. The main questions revolve around understanding what information female ornaments provide about the bearer and how males choose between females. I also examine how females compete against each other and what the costs of being ornamented are for a female. To study these questions I use the common glow-worm (Lampyris noctiluca Linnaeus, Lampyridae), whose females glow at night to attract flying males. According to my results, a female’s glowing provides accurate information about fecundity and males base their choice of mate on the intensity of female glowing. I showed that the perceived strength of an ornament in comparison to others close by is more important than the actual strength of an ornament. In the glow-worm, the perceived strength of an ornament depends on distance to the observer, making the system open to exploitation. A mathematical model I developed suggested that dull females could outcompete brighter ones by choosing optimal locations, and experimentation showed this to be the case. Finally, my results show that glow-worm females lose eggs each day they remain unmated. This suggests that the evolution of female ornamentation may have been driven in part by the need to find a mate as soon as possible after eclosion. Which in turn means that female and male ornamentation may have fundamentally different purposes: for females mating soon may be important, where for males the total number of offspring fertilized is critical. / Tiivistelmä Seksuaalisia ornamentteja on kehittynyt hyvin laajaan kirjoon eläinlajeja parantamaan yksilöiden kelpoisuutta nostamalla niiden parittelutodennäköisyyttä. Koirailla parittelutodennäköisyyden ja kelpoisuuden välinen yhteys on yleensä selvä: jokainen parittelu nostaa jälkeläismäärää. Naarailla yhteys ei ole yhtä selvä, sillä niillä jälkeläismäärä yleensä riippuu resurssien saatavuudesta eikä kumppanien määrästä. Parinvalinta on kiinteästi yhteydessä ornamentaatioon: Yhden sukupuolen yksilöt päättävät kenen kanssa paritella toisen sukupuolen yksilöiden ornamenttien laadun perusteella. Ornamentit toimivat valinnan perusteena välittämällä tietoa parin laadusta. Parinvalinta voi johtaa yksilöiden väliseen kilpailuun kumppaneista valitun sukupuolen sisällä. Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkoituksenani on tutkia naaraiden ornamenttien tarkoitusta ja kustannuksia sekä tutkia miten naaraat voivat kilpailla toisiaan vastaan koiraista. Pääkysymykset liittyvät ornamenttien välittämään informaatioon ja siihen miten koiraat valitsevat kumppaninsa. Lisäksi tarkastelen miten naaraat voivat kilpailla keskenään ja mitä kustannuksia ornamenteista on naaraille. Kysymysten selvittämiseksi käytän tutkimuslajina kiiltomatoa (Lampyris noctiluca Linnaeus, Lampyridae), lajia jonka naaraat loistavat öisin houkutellakseen lentäviä koiraita. Tulosteni mukaan kiiltomatonaaraan loiste välittää tarkkaa informaatiota niiden munamäärästä ja koiraat osaavat valita parinsa tämän perusteella. Osoitin, että ornamentin havaittu vahvuus verrattuna ympärillä oleviin on tärkeämpää kuin ornamentin todellinen vahvuus. Kiiltomadolla havaittu kirkkaus riippuu etäisyydestä havaitsijaan, mikä tekee signallointijärjestelmästä avoimen väärinkäytölle. Laatimani matemaattisen mallin mukaan himmeät naaraat voisivat päihittää kilpailussa kirkkaampia valitsemalla parempia loistamispaikkoja. Käytännön kokeet osoittivat tämän pitävän paikkansa. Viimeinen tulokseni oli, että kiiltomadolla naaras menettää osan munistaan joka päivä jonka se joutuu odottamaan parittelua. Tästä voi päätellä, että naaraan ornamentin evoluutiota on voinut osaltaan ajaa tarve paritella mahdollisimman pian aikuistumisen jälkeen. Naaraiden ja koiraiden ornamenttien syyt voivat olla hyvin erilaiset: naarailla parittelu mahdollisimman pian voi olla tärkeintä, kun koiraalla parittelukumppanien määrä on tärkein.

À partir du récolement critique de plus de cinq cents accessoires vestimentaires sud-alpins découverts au nord des Alpes, le présent travail vise à caractériser la participation de la culture de Golasecca dans l’accroissement des réseaux de circulation reliant la Méditerranée occidentale aux sociétés celtiques. Les objets personnels découverts dans de nombreux habitats et sépultures alpins et transalpins indiquent une implication directe du domaine de Golasecca dans les échanges à moyenne et longue distance. Elle se traduit par des phénomènes de métissage culturel, de transfert technologique et de mixité de population, lisibles dans certains sites du massif alpin, mais aussi à travers des déplacements et des fréquentations relativement longues des nombreux sites hallstattiens, de nature et statut différents. Phénomène en partie lié avec l’émergence des sociétés aristocratiques, la circulation de ces objets et de biens plus luxueux illustre le rôle d’intermédiaire privilégié joué par Golasecca dans les circuits à très longue distance. / Based on the critical inventory of more than five hundred clothing accessories from the southern-Alps discovered in the northern-Alps, the present work aims at characterising the role of the Golasecca civilisation in the growth of circulation networks linking up the western Mediterranean to Celtic civilisations. Personal belongings discovered in many alpine and transalpine settlements and burial places bear witness of a direct implication of the Golasecca culture in medium and long-distance trades. This implication results in phenomena of cultural mix, technological transfer and mixed nature population, that are perceptible in certain areas of the alpine massif as well as through some displacements and relatively long-time frequenting of the main Hallstattian local settlements of varied kind and status. As a phenomenon which is partly linked to the emergence of aristocratic societies, the circulating of luxurious objects and ornaments illustrates the fact that Gollasecca has been a major go-between in the trade and communication networks between Mediterranean cultures and Hallstatt chiefs.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:00:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5568.pdf: 3940253 bytes, checksum: df30110e6e707b5d14c363d2a518067a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-09-04 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Talk about their existences through objects and ornaments (enfeites) is something the residents of the Village of Cimbres (Terra Indígena Xukuru do Ororubá) constantly do. This work is, in this sense, an endeavor to pursue them, people, objects and adornments likewise, through the paths they trace, the connections they engender and, at the same time, constitute all of them. As I seek to discuss in this text, something enable objects and ornaments in being active parts in person making, and vice versa: the capacity of everything that is matter to be occupied by existences that go beyond their boundaries, something that constitutes them and is always open to continuous changes. This capacity makes possible to access many portions of Xukuru world through objects and adornments. Thus, looking to the Xukuru through those artifacts, I aim to set forth the multiple connections that they create, and are creating them respectively, and that concerns to relatives and families, person making, politics, cosmology and so on. This text is an exercise to, just as the Xukuru do, look into their world through their objects. / Falar sobre a sua própria existência através de objetos e enfeites é algo constante entre os moradores da Vila de Cimbres (Terra Indígena Xukuru do Oroubá). Este trabalho é, nesse sentido, uma tentativa de segui-los, pessoas, enfeites e objetos, buscando percorrer os caminhos por eles traçados, as conexões que engendram e que, ao mesmo tempo, deles são parte constitutiva. Como busco argumentar no decorrer do texto, aquilo que garante aos objetos e enfeites ser parte ativa na constituição de pessoas, e vice-versa, é a capacidade, estendida a tudo aquilo que é matéria, de ser habitado por existências que os extrapolam, compondo-se e sendo passíveis de transformações contínuas. Ao mesmo tempo, isso faz com que, a partir de objetos e enfeites, se tenha acesso a diversos domínios do mundo Xukuru. Sendo assim, através deles busco mostrar as múltiplas conexões que propiciam, sem que deles deixem de ser parte constitutiva, e que dizem respeito a parentes e famílias, à produção de pessoas, política, cosmologia e assim por diante. Proponho, assim, seguindo os Xukuru, um olhar para o seu mundo a partir dos objetos.

Si la sélection sexuelle proposée par Darwin fournit un cadre théorique satisfaisant pour expliquer l'évolution et le maintien des ornements sexuellement dimorphiques, le cas de l'ornementation mutuelle requiert l'emploi du cadre plus large offert par la sélection sociale. Dans de nombreux cas en effet, l'explication du maintien de l'ornementation mutuelle nécessite de considérer non seulement la compétition pour l'accès au partenaire de reproduction, mais également la compétition pour l'accès à d'autres types de ressources telles que la nourriture ou les emplacements pour nicher. Cependant, le maintien de l'ornementation mutuelle n'est encore que partiellement compris chez les oiseaux marins. Les travaux réalisés au cours de cette thèse s'inscrivent dans la continuité des recherches initiées depuis quelques années dans le but de comprendre le maintien de l'ornementation mutuelle chez le manchot royal, un oiseau exprimant un patch orange présentant un pic de réflectance ultraviolet de chaque côté de la mandibule, des patches auriculaires jaunes de chaque côté de la tête et un patch formant un dégradé allant du marron au jaune pâle sur le poitrail. Les travaux présentés dans ce manuscrit de thèse portent (i) sur les combats entre individus du même sexe pour accéder à un partenaire de reproduction, (ii) sur le rôle des ornements colorés dans le processus d'appariement, (iii) sur l'association entre le degré de développement des ornements et la position du territoire occupé au sein de la colonie, et enfin (iv) sur l'existence de variations interannuelles concernant le degré de coloration des ornements et le processus de choix de partenaire. Les résultats révèlent que : (i) les affrontements pour l'accès au partenaire sont beaucoup plus fréquents chez les mâles que chez les femelles ; (ii) l'ornementation mutuelle du bec pourrait être maintenu pas le processus de choix mutuel ; (iii) les individus occupant les territoires les plus centraux de la colonie expriment des patches auriculaires plus large et un patch de poitrine plus coloré ; (iv) les ornements présentent des variations notables entre deux années, tout comme le processus de choix de partenaire. Pris dans leur ensemble, ces résultats révèlent que le maintien de l'ornementation mutuelle du manchot royal est multifactoriel, et des pistes de recherches sont proposées pour affiner notre compréhension de ce phénomène complexe. / Darwin devised sexual selection theory in order to explain the evolution and maintenance of secondary sexual traits. In mutually ornamented species, however, the broader theoretical framework of social selection is needed. In many cases indeed, understanding the maintenance of mutual ornamentation requires to take into account competition for both sexual (i.e. mates) and non-sexual resources (e.g. food, nest sites). How mutual ornaments maintain and evolve is actually not well understood in seabirds species. The aim of the research program within which this Ph.D. thesis took place was to understand the maintenance of mutual ornamentation in king penguin, a bird exhibiting a ultraviolet and orange beak spot on each side of the mandible, two yellow auricular patches, and a patch on the breast that grade from brown to bright yellow. We studied (i) same-sex fight over mates; (ii) mate choice for color ornaments; (iii) the relationships between conspicuousness of ornaments and position of the territory within the colony; and finally (iv) the existence of inter-annual variations in color ornaments expression and mate choice process. Our results show that: (i) same-sex fights over mates are highly male-biased; (ii) color of the beak spots may be involved in mutual mate choice; (iii) central individuals exhibit larger auricular patches and more colorful breast patch; (iv) ornament conspicuousness as well as mate choice show inter-annual changes. Taken together, these results reveal that maintenance of king penguin mutual ornaments is multifactorial, and some research avenues are suggested for future researches.