The Trio are a group of Carib-speaking Amerindians who live on both sides of the Surinam Brazilian Frontier. At present they number about 600 and they retain much of their traditional culture. This thesis deals with the social organisation of these people, and the subject is treated in three parts. The first part - Chapters I, II, and III - provides a background to the main part of the study which is to be found in teh second part - Chapters IV to X inclusive. The final part - Chapter XI - consists of certain comparative and theoretical points which arise from the thesis.

This paper is basically a re-examination of the existing ethnographic literature concerning Indian tribes in four subsistence areas of North America. The purpose is twofold: to outline the principles governing the size and composition of local groups, and to draw distinctions among rules and patterns of residence. I suggest initially that patterns of residence are a key factor in the analysis of local group composition; that such patterns are at least partially rooted in ecological factors; that residence patterns will be similar in their effects on local group composition within given subsistence areas; and that major differences among residence patterns and the composition of local groups will be found only among residence patterns and local groups of different subsistence areas. The tribes of the Northwest coast region were found to have corporate local groups and definite cultural preferences for permanent residence by adult males in those local groups in which they enjoyed the greatest advantage, in terms both of material wealth and prestige. This was termed a preferred rule of residence. Because of the preferred patterns of patrilateral and matrilateral cross cousin marriage, and the elaborate complex of status and rank, this was often the local group of ego's mother's brother, that is, avunculocal residence. More commonly, however, this would be the local group of ego's wife, that is, matrilocal residence. The Sub-arctic region was divided into two areas. In the east, the local groups were corporate and residence was ideally patrilocal, i.e. with the local group of a man's father or brothers. This was based largely on status considerations and was termed a prescribed rule of residence. The ideal pattern was not always possible due to ecological factors however. In the west, local groups were not corporate. There was no ideal pattern of residence, although there was what was termed a statistical regularity of patrilocal residence. Local groups were not corporate on the Plains. Statistical regularities of both patrilocal and matrilocal residence were found, but these did not normally affect local group composition to any significant degree. The only ideal of residence was that of affiliation with a local group in which one had some kin. In the Great Basin region, local groups were not corporate. Only statistical irregularities in residence pattern were found, due to ecological factors. Several common elements were noted in the study. Descent systems had little effect on local group composition, other than by establishing a dichotomy of kin and non-kin. Local groups tended to be bilateral groups of kin, on the Northwest coast due largely to sociological factors, and in the Sub-arctic and Great Basin regions because of situational factors. The local groups of the Plains region were clusters of bilateral groups of kin. Local groups were found to be limited in size, both maximum and minimum, by such factors as ecology. Within those limits precise patterns were based both on sociological factors and on such aspects of ecology as demography. The final chapter of the thesis is a general discussion of the various factors affecting both local groups and residence patterns. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

The aim of this thesis is to study the problem of change in Jewish religious life. At the outset, a brief historical review of the development of Jewish religious law is sketched In order to introduce the reader to some of the religious problems which have faced the Jews during the past two centuries. The second chapter outlines the four most important modern approaches to the problem of change: Reform, Neo-Orthodox, Conservative, and Reconstructionist. In connection with each of these movements, the reader will find a brief history, explanation of principles, and evaluation. A study of Jewish religious life in Vancouver is presented in the third chapter to show the extent of social change away from the norm of Orthodoxy that has taken place in the Jewish religious life of this community. Wherever possible, comparisons are made with the Jewish community of Minneapolis, one of the few that have been studied, in order to ascertain if Vancouver is typical. In the last chapter certain conclusions are reached about the need for change in Jewish religious life. Conclusions are reached after considering the history of Jewish religious law, the modern attempts to change this law, and the extent to which contemporary Jews observe Jewish religious law. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis concerns the cultural meanings of zar spirit possession in Hofriyat, a Northern Sudanese village. It begins with an interpretive analysis of the Hofriyati everyday world, showing village kinship, marriage, and prevalent customs such as female circumcision to be informed by a common idiom: "interiority" or relative enclosure. In Part II it proceeds to discuss, in terms of that idiom, contexts in which the possession idiom might be invoked: who claims to be possessed, and under what conditions. Here it emerges that zar possession plays an important role in the negotiation and renegotiation of meaning by "rephrasing" interpersonal conflict, symbolically restructuring certain life experiences for the Hofriyati, and effecting realignments of kin relations and social positions in ways deemed favorable to the possessed. Next comes a comparison of the zar propitiation ritual and the local wedding ceremony, in which zar is seen to operate as a meta-cultural text, a comment upon the realities of everyday life and the informative idiom of village culture. This idea is carried forward into Part III, where the system of zar beliefs and spirit manifestations is discussed in its own right. Here possession is viewed as an esthetic form and ' potential messages to be derived from the identities and associations of the spirits are considered. In sum, this thesis is an attempt to describe Hofriyati cultural meanings — the logic of everyday life, its negotiation through acknowledgement of possession affliction, and its secondary or meta-cultural elaboration in ritual and in the system of zar beliefs. It draws principally upon the works of symbolic anthropologists such as Geertz, Turner, and Crapanzano, and upon the insights of Paul Ricoeur for theoretical guidance. However, the "theory of Hofriyati culture" which emerges in the dissertation is understood to be the result of interactions between the researcher and her Hofriyati informants. The thesis is an interpretation, a special sort of negotiated meaning. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Interpretation of Maya social organization through material remains has long been a subject of speculation. The gap between data and interpretation inevitably involves the concerns and conditions of the society producing such interpretive discourse, and diverging interests and modes of analysis continue to result in alternative and often conflicting interpretations of ancient Maya society, often involving suppositions of systemic weakness that led to the collapse of its centralized or dynastic authorities in the ninth century. Currently central in such interpretations is the role of inscribed stone seats, erected by "subsidiary" or non-royal members of Maya society in "subsidiary" districts or suburbs of the major Maya polity of Copan. At issue are the problematic interpretations of these seats that have been constructed to support a particular construct of Maya sociopolitical organization and an inherent weakness that would have doomed it to collapse. This thesis explains the premises of this current interpretation and examines the Copan seats from several alternate viewpoints and methodologies. Formulation of a comprehensive dataset of actual Maya seats and representations of seats in sculpture, ceramic, and hieroglyphic contexts demonstrates that the Copan seats fit comfortably within Maya epigraphic, stylistic and iconographic conventions rather than representing a revolutionary challenge to dynastic authority. Through analyses of form and construction, locational context, varieties of decoration, and content of inscriptions, this thesis shows that such hierarchically-privileged seats-of-authority, which are found in residential complexes of very different socio-economic status, not only in Copan but throughout the Maya region in Classic times, better support a model of factional competition than of autocratic dynastic authority. These seats appear to have been designed to construct the social position of their occupants in relation to subordinate members of their own factions, to other faction leaders with whom they were in competition, and to the ruler as both head of the polity and leader of the royal faction. Indeed, discursive notions of the seat and seating were central to ancient Maya concepts of patriarchal authority. Further, since such factional competition may be shown to characterize Maya social organization since Late Pre-Classic times, the inscribed Copan seats provide no insights as to the causes of the so-called "Maya Collapse." / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

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Cheuk, Ka Kin. / Thesis submitted in: November 2008. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [238]-252). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / List of Figures --- p.vii / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Researches on South Asians in Hong Kong Studies --- p.1 / Indian Overseas and Transnational Network --- p.5 / The Sikhs in Local and Transnational Contexts --- p.10 / Methodology --- p.18 / Organization of the Thesis --- p.25 / Chapter 2. --- Who are the Sikhs? --- p.28 / The History of Sikhism: An Evolution of Sikh Descent --- p.28 / The Philosophical Doctrines and Its Contemporary Impact --- p.35 / Conclusion --- p.41 / Chapter 3. --- "Migration, Settlement, and Remigration" --- p.44 / Patterns of Sikh Migration to Hong Kong: An Overview --- p.44 / An Extensive Mobility of the Sikhs in Today´ةs Hong Kong --- p.54 / Conclusion --- p.77 / Chapter 4. --- Local Life (1): Communal Worship and Cultural Persistence --- p.80 / The Sikh Temple in Hong Kong: Fieldsite Specification --- p.81 / The Rhythm of Temple Activities --- p.87 / The Persistent Cultural Practices in the Sikh Temple --- p.97 / Conclusion --- p.106 / Chapter 5. --- Local Life (2): Temple and Social Relationships --- p.108 / Social Participations in the Sikh Temple --- p.109 / "Different Roles, Different Social Identities" --- p.116 / Forming Communities and Establishing Networks --- p.129 / Conclusion --- p.149 / Chapter 6. --- Individual Identity and Imposed Reality --- p.151 / Why Do You Wear a Turban? --- p.152 / Intermingling of Fervor and Ambivalence in the Sikh Identities --- p.161 / Interpersonal Relationships with the Hong Kong Chinese --- p.168 / Conclusion --- p.175 / Chapter 7. --- Transnational Connections --- p.178 / Rejuvenating the Joint Family Linkage --- p.180 / The Significance of the Joint Family in the Global Context --- p.197 / "Wedding, Land, and New Houses" --- p.210 / Conclusion --- p.220 / Chapter 8. --- Conclusion --- p.222 / How are they related? --- p.223 / Rethinking Transnational Anthropology and Multi-sited Ethnography --- p.228 / Afterthoughts on Studying the Sikhs in Hong Kong and Beyond --- p.231 / Appendix: Glossary --- p.233 / Bibliography --- p.237