The thesis focuses on the role of an adult-parents in the viewing and reading of a series of picture-free text books (so-called wimmelbuch) by S. Bernerová  Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Night. The aim of the thesis is to describe what interactions occur between a parent and a child between two and three years of age when reading "picture books", so-called wimmelbuch. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with the topics of reading literacy development (especially for two-year and three-year-olds), pictorial books, books of the type wimmelbuch, adult as a children's book mediator, illustrations and reading rituals. The empirical part includes quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative part of the research is based on data from an online questionnaire for parents of preschool children. In the framework of long-term qualitative research, the interaction between parent and child between two and three years of age in four selected families is monitored and described, while working with books of the type wimmelbuch by Susanne Berner. The result of the questionnaire is that more than half of the parents interviewed have some of books of the type wimmelbuch by S. Berner, and most of them think that these books are developing children's reading literacy. Most often, viewing/reading takes...

My project unfolds on three different scales:  Materials, Objects and a Space. A research on materials and new technique for their transformation, a creation of functional objects out of the transformed materials, and finally, a spatial environment for the created objects. Real-life site visits to various factories and craftsmen, discussions with makers, sourcing leftover materials, transforming materials into borderline art/design objects are among the key elements of my research methodology.  The three scales of my work are unified by the notion of Rituals. My understanding of rituals is not about creating a new religion but focuses rather on the activities in our everyday that can become rituals. It is about finding magic in the mundane. Daily routines and rituals are one of the main things that can keep us grounded, especially in a time of crisis. I believe that material explorations and working with the senses are important and relevant for the field of Spatial design and that my approach to engaging different scales within the project brings something new and yet not vastly explored.

The study of early Greek sacrificial rituals is an under-researched field, as previous scholarship has focused in Late Archaic and Classical Greece to understand and reconstruct Greek sacrifice. This thesis is an attempt to complement our knowledge of early Greek sacrificial practices, which are defined here as thysia, holocaust and moirocaust, focusing in the 8th and 7th century Peloponnese. To achieve this goal, all available archaeological and zooarchaeological evidence from the sanctuaries at Olympia, Isthmia, Nikoleika, Mt. Lykaion and Asea, is incorporated. It is argued that the reconstructed sacrificial norm of thysia is not reflected in the early Peloponnesian evidence and a re-evaluation of Greek sacrifice, at least for the Late Geometric–Early Archaic period, is suggested. The second aspect this thesis is to explore social competition in the given chronological and geographical framework through Greek sacrificial rituals. A new theory based on the notion of visibility is applied, according to which the sacrificer aims to promote themself and earn social capital through direct and indirect visibility achieved from the regular performance of sacrificial rites. It is suggested that the level of visibility in sacrifice is dependent on four parameters: sacrificial ritual and meals, sacrificial investment, sacrificial installation and the status of the sanctuary. / Tidig grekisk offerritual är ett understuderat område, då forskare framför allt fokuserat på det senarkaiska och klassiska Grekland för att förstå och rekonstruera grekisk offerpraktik. Denna uppsats är ett försök att utöka vår kunskap om tidiga grekiska offer, som här definieras som thysia, holokauster och moirokauster, med fokus på 700- och 600-talen på Peloponnesos. För att uppfylla detta syfte studeras all tillgängligt arkeologiskt och animalosteologiskt material från helgedomarna i Olympia, Isthmia, Nikoleika, Lykaionberget och Asea. Uppsatsen hävdar att den antagna normen för djuroffer i form av thysia inte återspeglas i det tidiga materialet från Peloponnesos och att det därför bör det ske en omvärdering av grekiskt offerbruk, åtminstone vad gäller den sengeometriska och tidigarkaiska perioden. Vidare utforskar uppsatsen hur social konkurrens uttrycktes genom offerritual inom samma period och geografiska område. Här appliceras en ny teori baserad på visibilitet. Enligt denna strävar den som offrar att framhäva sig själv och förvärva socialt kapital genom den direkta eller indirekta visibilitet som erhålls från att regelbundet genomföra offerritualer. Fyra parametrar avgör visibilitetens genomslagskraft: ritualen och de efterföljande måltiderna, investeringen i själva offret, installationer för offrets praktiska genomförande och helgedomens status.

Early Christian missionaries alienated Shona people from their culture and traditional religion. Essential elements of Shona religion were rejected because they were thought to be entertaining paganism, fetishism and idolatry. More than a century of Christianity in Zimbabwe has passed and some Shona still hold on tenaciously to their ancestral religion. The missionaries did not understand Shona language and may have been ignorant of the significance of the Shona religion to the Shona people. However, with the transfer of power from colonial masters to black rule, one would have expected parallel changes concerning creative integration of indigenous cultural values with the Gospel. But today, forty years after independence, not a single Church denomination in Zimbabwe (Mainline Churches, Evangelical Churches and Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches) seems to have made any ‘meaningful adaption’ of the Shona views on death and afterlife, in the light of the Bible, and in particular, the Gospel. Several elements in Shona traditional beliefs on death and afterlife have been proposed for inculturation. In spite of the proposals put forward by various scholars, even the indigenous Church leaders in Zimbabwe seem to have failed to fully adapt the Shona views into the Christian Gospel message, despite the fact that they fully understand and appreciate the Shona culture and values. A literature review will help to extract information from current and past studies underlying this field. The principles followed on comprehending and solving problems, and the methods and methodology employed in the study, will be made explicit. A detailed examination of the Shona views on death and afterlife which the Zimbabwean Church is expected to possibly incorporate into their worship, and the precepts on the eschatological perspective of Christianity on death, resurrection and afterlife, will be conducted. Definition and analysis of the terms ‘dialogue’ and ‘inculturation’, and the progress achieved on dialogue and inculturation, by the Church in Zimbabwe, will follow. The challenges confronting the Church in Zimbabwe, and the Shona Christians, will be investigated, while theological arguments will be employed to identify gaps in knowledge in the previous literature. The study will suggest possible proposals on the way forward. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / PhD. (Systematic Theology)

African Religion offers new images and symbols of reconciliation that may enhance existing Christian reconciliation metaphors and liturgies. Traditionally, Christians understood reconciliation through the images of either Augustine’s victory model, Anselm’s objective model or Abelard’s subjective model. While these images offered valuable insights, they are limited and increasingly difficult to understand in our modern context. Postmodern philosophy presents theologians with the possibility of deconstructing dominant discourses in order to consider new possibilities. This approach is eminently applicable to the traditional Christian reconciliation models. A comparative study of Western Christian and African reconciliation myths, rituals and concepts is used to deconstruct the accepted positions on the matter of reconciliation. Interviews with four African theologians, John Mbiti, Agrippa Khathide, Daniel Ngubane and Tinyiko Maluleke, reveal that African Christians have often understood reconciliation in more and different ways than those available in traditional Christian thought. They often derived their ideas from African Traditional Religion as well as the modern liberation struggle. In studying African Traditional Religion, it becomes clear that that African religion offers very different options to traditional Christianity with regard to its view on God, ancestors and spirits, life force, and of special importance for this study, shame, guilt and sin. African religion’s this-worldly focus views reconciliation as taking place on a mostly human level rather than between humans and God. African reconciliation rituals can be classified according to the purpose or the myths behind them. Some rituals are intended to create or restore community, while others are meant to propitiate or at least transfer guilt. A third grouping of rituals have the purpose of either expelling or accepting (and thus in a certain sense neutralising) evil (or perceived evil) in the community. Other rituals have a number of intentions, and can use unlikely rituals like open rebellion or dance to bring about reconciliation. A comparison between two religions should treat the religions equally. An investigation that examines both the integrating and transcending possibilities of religions can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the various reconciliation models without reference to some sort of supernatural reality. The anthropological and social sciences also offer valuable insights into the possible structure of reconciliation. And the South African context demands some minimum requirements for reconciliation in this country. When all these criteria are used to evaluate African and Christian reconciliation models, new possibilities emerge. Different models show themselves to be useful in different contexts. Some African models can improve our understanding of reconciliation between humans and God, while others fit the social context of South Africa. It seems that African thought and religion has a lot to offer to the study of reconciliation. The African emphasis on this-worldliness and community, the use of rituals and symbols, as well as Africa’s still-coherent myths presents new and exciting perspectives. These insights and models can be incorporated into Christian liturgies and rituals that will deepen Christians’ understanding and celebration of reconciliation. / Thesis (DD (Science of Religion and Missiology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Science of Religion and Missiology / unrestricted

Fler länder har under Covid-19-pandemin rapporterat att deras restriktioner har inneburit en ökning av våld i nära relation. I Sverige har socialtjänsten det yttersta ansvaret att erbjuda stöd och hjälp till en våldsutsatt kvinna. Under pandemin förväntas socialtjänsten att ge ett likartat stöd som innan pandemin trots de uppmaningar och restriktioner som utfärdats. Syftet med denna studie är således att undersöka hur socialsekreterare upplever sitt arbete med kvinnor som utsätts för våld i nära relation under rådande pandemi. Studien är baserad på material från åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med socialsekreterare från olika kommuner i Sverige. Michael Lipskys (2010) teori om gatubyråkrati används för att undersöka och förstå socialsekreterarnas handlingsutrymme i relation till den våldsutsatta kvinnan under rådande pandemi. Vidare används Randall Collins (2004) teori om interaktionsritualer för att förstå sammanhanget som studiens socialsekreterare och de våldsutsatta kvinnorna befinner sig. Studiens resultat visar att socialsekreterarnas arbete karaktäriseras av flera aspekter, bland annat av den betydelse som motivations- och informationsarbetet har för att etablera en första kontakt med den våldsutsatta kvinnan samt hur en hög grad av handlingsutrymme krävs för att både kunna ge rätt stöd och upprätthålla en interaktionsritual med klienten. Covid-19-pandemin har förändrat socialsekreterarnas arbete genom att de inte längre kan ha fysiska möten i samma utsträckning som tidigare, vilket visar sig vara en förlust i deras yrkesroll. / Several countries have reported an increase in intimate partner violence during the Covid-19 pandemic due to their restricted measures to control the spread of the virus. In Sweden, the social services have the responsibility to offer services in the form of support and help to a woman subjected to intimate partner violence. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the social services are expected to provide similar services as before the pandemic, despite the issued exhortation and restrictions. The purpose of this study is to examine how social workers experience their work with women who are subjected to intimate partner violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study is based on data from eight semi-structured interviews with social workers from different municipalities in Sweden. Michael Lipsky’s (2010) theory about street-level bureaucracy is used to examine and understand the social workers’ discretion in relation to the abused women during the current pandemic. Furthermore, Randal Collins’ (2004) theory about interaction rituals is used to understand the context in which the social workers in this study and the abused women find themselves.  The results of the study show that the work of social workers is characterized by several aspects, including the importance of motivational and information work to establish a first contact with the abused woman and how a high degree of room for maneuver is required to both provide the right support and maintain an interaction ritual with the client. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the work of social workers in that they can no longer have physical encounters to the same extent as before, proving to be a loss in their professional role.

The diploma thesis on the topic "Spirituality of Young Romanies" disserts on spirituality amongst them. The spirituality is pursued in general and its levels, possibilities of saturation and ties to institutions are comprised. A chapter describing the history of the Romanies and phenomena associated with the spirituality of the Romanies is included. The aim of the thesis is to find out whether the phenomena are still relevant in connection with Romany religiosity and whether they differ in the Ústí nad Labem Region and in the East of Slovakia, where these traditions are still represented in the majority society. In my theses I also trace whether there is syncretism. For the practical part, I have chosen quantitative research with the technique of a questionnaire survey.

This thesis explores physical and social aspects of playing tabletop games physically versus remotely. It also examines the experiences of contemporary players of tabletop games, with focus placed on play during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report begins with an explanation of tabletop games, including social and material aspects as examined in previous work. To explore the thesis’ problem area, several tabletop game players were interviewed, resulting in a number of recurring themes. The interview results suggest that social rituals and material aspects of tabletop games are highly important to players. This has implications for the future of tabletop games, many of which are discussed in the text.

Cette thèse de doctorat en histoire étudie les rapports religieux entre les Romains de l’Antiquité et les eaux douces avec lesquelles ils ont vécu en proximité. Cette étude part du constat que les Romains sont connus pour leurs savoirs techniques des eaux et leurs aqueducs. Toutefois, les croyances religieuses associées à l’eau n’ont pas encore été examinées dans leur ensemble et demeurent éparpillées à travers l’historiographie. Dans le but de combler cette lacune, cette étude présente une synthèse des cultes dédiés à l'eau par les Romains à partir des sources littéraires, archéologiques et épigraphiques, datant en majorité de la République tardive et du Haut-Empire (Ier siècle av. n. è au IIIe siècle). / This doctoral thesis in history focuses on the religious relationship between the ancient Romans and the freshwater which they lived nearby as inhabitants of a river town. This study starts from the observation that Romans are known for their technical knowledge of water and their aqueducts. However, religious beliefs associated with water have yet to be fully examined and remain scattered throughout historiography. To fill this gap, this study presents a synthesis of the aquatic cultures of the Romans from literary, archaeological, and epigraphic sources, dating mostly from the Late Republic and the High Empire (1st century BC. 3rd century)

Funerals are still considered as very important and well attended occasion in the black townships of South Africa. In the recent past, traditional African funerals practices have affected a number of powerful and complex systems that have been interaction in Africa. The three most important being traditional African cultures, modern Western culture and the environment. The study was conducted to establish factors that led to excessive funerals expenditures in some black townships communities of South Africa, in order to create a pastoral response to this phenomenon. The project was done in Ramatlabama village in the North West province and also in Soweto in the province of Gauteng. A qualitative methodological plan was followed allowing exclusive experiences to emerge. Families, adults and young church groups, clergy, Bishop, Social group and a Funeral undertaker , an in-depth qualitative analysis was employed in order to find the real reasons that led to excessive funeral expenditure. The data collected and analyzed revealed that factors such as impressing neighbors, meeting community and family expectation were the reasons for the phenomenon. There were other external factors that contributed indirectly to the practice and such as commercialization and politicization. In order to address this practice that is making the poor more vulnerable, the Shepherding Model of Gerkin’s and Pollard’s Theory of positive deconstruction was explored. It was found that the Clergy needed to be helped to be aware of the fact that excessive funeral expenditure requires a pastoral response with the right attitude and meaningful dialogues with those affected. The pastoral care-giver with adequate knowledge and exposure to life of pastoral care seeker will have a greater advantage to help most if not all families that usually find themselves in this predicament or dilemma. The best way for the church to help the poor families venture into the future, it’s by educating our communities on how not to spend beyond their means. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Practical Theology / unrestricted