The thesis has investigated the place of Zimbabwean indigenous intangible heritage in a globalising environment. It used the Shona language and intangible heritage situation as a case study. It argued that Zimbabwean intangible heritage is continually being eroded by the agents of globalisation and that the only way of safeguarding it from extinction is through the preservation of Zimbabwean indigenous languages. The thesis has come to this conclusion after having established that there is an intimate and inseparable bond between language and its intangible values so much that it is not possible to talk of one devoid of the other. The relationship has been seen to be symbiotic. The Shona language has been established to embody, express and to be a carrier of all the intangible heritage of its speakers into the future by re-living them in the people’s daily life while these intangible values have been seen to conserve the language through their continued practice by the people. The research has also established that Zimbabwean intangible heritage marginalisation has roots in colonialism, dating as far back as the early Christian missionary days. The Shona intangible heritage has also been seen to be still of value despite the global threats as evidenced by the people’s continued re-living of it through language. The thesis has also noted that the Zimbabwean Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture is still using out-dated colonial language policies that still further the ascendancy of English and the intangible values it stands for while indigenous languages and values are marginalised in the education system, in government and in industry thereby worsening their predicament in the global environment. The current socio-economic and political developments in the country and some Shona novelists in Shona and in English are also culprits in this whole process as they continue to demonise and infantilise Zimbabwean intangible heritage. The thesis has therefore asserted that Zimbabwean intangible heritage is most likely to be eroded from the face of the earth if no measures are taken to safeguard it from extinction. It has therefore wound up by arguing that the survival of Zimbabwean intangible heritage lies in the survival of Zimbabwean indigenous languages through which it continues to be practised and felt by its people. The thesis has therefore recommended that the Zimbabwean government adopt sound language policies that safeguard the survival of Zimbabwean indigenous languages to enable the indigenous intangible heritage of the people to survive as well as the two are intricately related. / African Languages / D. Litt. et. Phil.(African Languages)

MA (Anthropolgy) / Centre for African Studies / Commemorative structures like walls of remembrance, statues and monuments are representatives of social narratives and they usually represent the current political order. They also represent heroes deemed important by the current political regime. These structures, together with the corresponding narrative, can either be of local, regional or national importance. Nghunghunyani was a Gaza Nguni king who reigned in southern Mozambique in 19th century. His statue in the town of Giyani is a case in point. Nghunghunyani fought wars and entered into negotiations with the Portuguese in southern Mozambique in order to keep the land of his forefathers. However, the erection of his statue sparked controversy and has been met with resentment and rejection among the people of the region where it has been placed. This study aimed to elucidate the reasons behind the resentment and the rejection of the statue. This was done by examining the history of the homeland of Gazankulu and of the clans of the region in order to understand the ethnic enclaves of the Tsonga and the Shangaan, and the political undercurrents involved in the erection of a statue which is undeniably of national significance, but problematic locally and regionally. As heroes are imbedded in collective memory and collective narratives, the theory of collective memory following on Maurice Halbwachs was used. The discussion on ethnicity was directed by the ethnicity theories of Webber and Geertz. The interview was employed as the tool for collecting data, which elucidated that Nghunghunyani is not part of their founding heroes and that their praise poems do not include this historical figure. It appears that in as much as Nghunghunyani is a regional hero, his representation in Giyani is clouding the real history of the region and the debates are clouding the hero that King Nghunghunyani was. The study unveiled that Nghunghunyani is a nationally celebrated hero who cannot be contextualised positively in the local context amongst Tsonga speaking tribes and chiefdoms due to the nature of the hostile historical relationship between the ancestors of these groups and the Gaza Nguni.

The creative submission for my dissertation includes two of my documentary works: They Will Take My Island, a thirty-minute multimedia collaboration with filmmaker Atom Egoyan for amplified string octet, electronic track, and film, commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Paper Pianos, a ninety-minute staged collaboration with director Nigel Maister and projection artist Kevork Mourad. The written submission for my dissertation is an examination of the ways in which experiences around transgenerational trauma inform and manifest in my creative practice. I offer a summary of my own family history of survivors of the Armenian Genocide and Lebanese Civil War, as well as a survey of displacement amongst the Armenian community in the past century. Furthermore, I discuss identity processing as diaspora and the act of cultural preservation, as inspired by genocide survivor, composer, priest, writer, and musicologist, Komitas Vardapet. I later examine these ideas in the context of creating They Will Take My Island and Paper Pianos, both of which were constructively motivated by transgenerational survivor’s guilt and draw from extra-musical documentary and horror genre practices.

In the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, our nation's interest in protecting its cultural heritage collides with the high demand for carbon fuels. "Clinker" deposits dot the basin. These distinctive buttes, created by the underground combustion of coal, are underlain by coal veins; they also provided the main lithic resources for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. These deposits signify both a likelihood of extractable carbon and high archaeological site density. Federal law requires that energy developers must identify culturally significant sites before mining can begin. The research presented here explains the need for and describes a statistical tool with the potential to predict sites where carbon and cultural resources co-occur, thus streamlining the process of identifying important heritage sites to protect them from adverse impacts by energy development. The methods used for this predictive model include two binary logistic regression models using known archaeological sites in the Powder River Basin. The model as developed requires further refinement; the results are nevertheless applicable to future research in this and similar areas, as I discuss in my conclusion.

Master's work consists of 100 pages, 97 bibliographic lists are used. The relevance of the research topic is revealed in three interrelated aspects: doctrinal, economic and rule-making. The doctrinal aspect is manifested in the fact that today in the Russian Federation there are no special normative acts that would have a regulatory effect on public relations taking shape between entities on the Internet. The rule-making aspect is expressed in the fact that the tasks set by the leadership of the Russian Federation on the accelerated development of the economy and social sphere give particular relevance to this work. The most significant legislative adjustment will be required in connection with the development of the digital environment. Finally, the economic aspect is due to the need to strengthen government regulation in the field of digital technologies. All this together determines the relevance of the research topic and determines its choice. The aim of the study is a comprehensive, comprehensive study and study of the legal nature and legal characteristics of obligations arising on the Internet when providing Internet services with the aim of generating theoretical and practical conclusions that can be taken into account when reforming the law and improving judicial and law enforcement practice in the analyzed public relations. In pursuance of the research goal, the following specific tasks are set in the work: to consider the legal regulation of Internet services in the Russian Federation; define the concepts of “Internet service” and “legal risk”, substantiate the legally relevant criteria for their classification in order to increase the efficiency of their management; conduct a comprehensive analysis of legal risks associated with the protection of intellectual property; to offer a range of measures to improve legislation in the field of Internet services management. Research methods include general scientific and private scientific methods, in particular the formal legal, comparative legal, logical, statistical method, as well as other methods of economic analysis of private law. / Магистерская работа состоит из 100 страниц, использовано 97 библиографических списков. Актуальность темы исследования раскрывается в трех взаимосвязанных аспектах: доктринальном, экономической и нормотворческом. Доктринальный аспект проявляется в том, что на сегодняшний день в Российской Федерации отсутствуют специальные нормативные акты, которые бы осуществляли регулирующее воздействие на общественные отношения, складывающиеся между субъектами в сети «Интернет». Нормотворческий аспект выражается в том, что особую актуальность настоящей работе придают поставленные руководством Российской Федерации задачи по ускоренному развитию экономики и социальной сферы. Наиболее значимая перестройка законодательства потребуется в связи с развитием цифровой среды. Наконец, экономический аспект обусловлен потребностью усиления государственного регулирования в сфере цифровых технологий. Все это в совокупности обуславливает актуальность темы исследования и определяет ее выбор. Целью исследования является всестороннее, комплексное изучение и исследование правовой природы и юридической характеристики обязательств, возникающих в сети «Интернет» при оказании Интернет-услуг с целью формирования теоретических и практических выводов, которые могут быть учтены при реформировании законодательства и совершенствовании судебной и правоприменительной практики в анализируемой сфере общественных отношений. Во исполнение поставленной цели исследования в работе ставятся следующие конкретные задачи: рассмотреть правовое регулирование интернет-услуг в Российской Федерации; определить понятия «интернет-услуга» и «правовой риск», обосновать юридически значимые критерии их классификации для цели повышения эффективности управления ими; провести комплексный анализ правовых рисков, связанных с защитой интеллектуальной собственности; предложить комплекс мероприятий по совершенствованию законодательства в области управления интернет-услугами. Методы исследования включают в себя общенаучные и частные научные методы, в частности формально-юридический, сравнительно-правовой, логический, статистический метод, а также иные методы экономического анализа частного права.

Iraq is a country of great cultural significance as it is where civilization first began. As a result of its lengthy occupation, it is virtually one large archaeological site. In spite of numerous warnings to the governments of both the United States and the United Kingdom, no efforts were made to protect the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad when the American-led coalition unlawfully invaded Iraq. Indeed, orders were given not to interfere with the looting. During the occupation that followed, the United States failed to take steps to protect Iraqi cultural property. In terms of international law, it was obliged to protect Iraq’s cultural property. The United States also chose to exacerbate its unlawful conduct by occupying archaeological sites and damaging them further by illegal construction. As a result many significant sites have been irreparably damaged or destroyed. Their conduct was the result of complete indifference to the Iraqi cultural heritage. Although their actions render them iin breach of international law, it is unlikely that the United States will ever be prosecuted for its actions. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M.A. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)

This dissertation focuses on utopian versus dystopian perceptions of rural indigenous African societies with regard to the modern metropolis. Since the evolution of the modern metropolis, rural African societies have undergone significant and complex cultural changes that have dislodged rural cultures from being perceived in terms of the traditional notion of fixity. This has lead to the modern city being seen as either utopian or dystopian by rural African societies. The dissertation questions the “utopianess” of the modern metropolis with a special focus on its central idea of “progress”. Special attention is given to artists who explore this cultural phenomenon in the utopian–dystopian paradigm. The dissertation goes further to address the cultural impact of recent technological developments on rural and urban societies, the researcher’s perceptions of this impact and how this has contributed to the dynamics that characterise the cultures of contemporary rural and urban migrants / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Centre for Macau Studies

No description available.

Els sistemes de gestió de drets digitals controlen l'ús del contingut multimèdia a través de tota la cadena de valor digital. Aquesta tesis contribueix als diferents aspectes de la gestió dels drets digitals i de la protecció de la propietat intel·lectual.La contribució d'aquest tesi és la definició de formats i mecanismes estàndards que permetin la gestió del contingut a través de la cadena de valor digital. Els formats i els mecanismes seran estàndards, de forma que permetran la interoperabilitat entre sistemes de DRM que segueixin l'estàndard MPEG-21.També s'han dissenyat mecanismes estàndards per governar continguts digitals, protegir la propietat intel·lectual i per a la gestió i protecció de les notificacions d'esdeveniments dins dels sistemes de gestió de drets digitals. / Los sistemas de gestión de derechos digitales controlan el uso del contenido multimedia a través de toda la cadena de valor digital. Esta tesis contribuye a diferentes aspectos de la gestión de los derechos digitales y de la protección de la propiedad intelectual.La contribución de esta tesis es la definición formatos y mecanismos estándares que permitan la gestión del contenido a través de la cadena de valor digital. Los formatos y mecanismos serán estándares, de forma que permitirán la interoperabilidad entre sistemas de DRM que sigan el estándar MPEG-21. También se han diseñado mecanismos estándares para gobernar contenidos digitales, proteger la propiedad intelectual y para la gestión y protección de las notificaciones de eventos dentro de los sistemas de gestión de derechos digitales. / Digital rights management systems control the use of multimedia content through the complete digital value chain. This thesis contributes in different aspects of the digital rights management and of the protection of the intellectual property.Main contribution of this thesis is the definition of standardised formats and mechanisms that enable the management of governed multimedia content through the digital value chain. The formats and mechanisms will be standard in order to enable interoperability between DRM systems compliant to the MPEG-21 standard.Different mechanisms have also been defined to govern digital content, protect the intellectual property and for the management and protection of the event reports within digital rights management systems.